Between the wars, the Whittaker's estate is sinking. Only the iron will of Mrs. Whittaker staves off bankruptcy while she awaits her son John's return from the continent. To her dismay he brings a bride, an American widow who races cars. The bride, Larita, thinks she and John will visit the estate and then go to London, where he'll work and she'll race. However, John is ‘to the manor born’ and mother is nothing if not a master planner and manipulator. Soon it's all-out war between mother and bride, with John's father, a burnt- out veteran of the Great War, in the bride's corner.