Two high school kids in small-town Nebraska have their dreams. Zee, a minister's daughter, wants to be a movie star. Doyle, the son of a wealthy lawyer, is expected to follow in his father’s footsteps and practice law. But World War I exploded and changed everyone’s plans.

When Doyle ends up on the battlefields of France, though he performs ably, he comes out disillusioned. Rejecting his parents' pleas to return to school, he finds himself in Los Angeles on the bottom rung of society. Unknown to him, Zee Miller is also in L. A., having run away from her father and the religion of her youth. But when Doyle gets back into law and Zee is arrested for murder, their lives will intersect again, in a way that may shatter them both.