Sally Bills is a pretty sixteen year old high school cheerleader with a charmed life—good looks, a steady boyfriend, friends, etc. Her life is disrupted when Weedy Revenall, hired by her father, comes into town on his bi-plane to dust the crops and stays with her family. Weedy causes a stir in town with all his war stories, and has a lot of ideas that Sally has never heard before. He shows her the shacks where he'd grown up, and talks about what life was like being poor and taking charity from the church. This makes her think. While Weedy is waiting for the next batch of pests to hatch before he dusts again, a townsperson invites Weedy to do some stunt flying at his tractor dealership's grand opening. A whole to-do is made of the day, but Weedy never shows. Sally goes to find him, and finds him drinking in his room, bitter. He complains about the townspeople who look down upon him for being poor and an outsider, and tells Sally she's just like them. She becomes upset and goes upstairs to cry. On Saturday night Sally wakes up to see men from the town setting fire to Weedy's plane. She is shocked at how people she'd thought she'd known could commit such destruction. When they're all gone and the fire is about out, Weedy steps out with his things and gets in his car. He looks to Sally's window and she salutes him, then leans out the window to watch him speed away toward the highway.