Charles Dudley and his family have just moved to a new house owned by his firm, but things are not easy at all. The house is dusty and old, and the workmen have not come back to finish the work they started. The Dudleys are forced to live with the bare walls, knowing that it is useless to unpack before the work finishes. Charles is outside, clearing the brush in the garden; the vines are seemingly innumerable, and he is extremely irritated. His wife Josephine seems to have abandoned her usual bland amiability and sharply reminds him that he has no right to project his anger onto her and children, because they also dislike the move. Gordon, his son, has gotten into trouble at school. The boy is already having a hard time because his new class is more advanced than he is, and he hasn't made many new friends. A letter from the school arrives saying that Gordon took a dollar from a girl's coat and gave it to his friend, Crow; the principal requests that the dollar be paid back immediately. Charles is furious, and utterly certain that Gordon stole the money, even though the boy maintains that he found it on the floor. They return to the house, and Josephine tries to handle the matter gently - but Charles eventually loses his temper and harshly interrogates the boy. Gordon tearfully admits that taking something that doesn't belong to him is stealing anyway, and goes up to write his lines and then clear the vines. Josephine reprimands Charles for being so harsh with Gordon, and asks him to be a better father. He goes up to see Gordon, and finds that the lines have already been written. The boy is out in the yard clearing vines; Charles joins him at first, but then they quit and go in for dinner. Charles takes a moment to read the lines that Gordon wrote, and is shocked by the last one: "You hate me and I hate you." Josephine has tidied up for dinner - she looks beautiful and impossibly far away from him. Charles regrets the way he treated his son, and hopes that the boy can help them get along now.