Several weeks prior to the 1929 stock market crash, Terrence Cronin returns to his home in Portland, Maine after a cruise as a merchant seaman on a tanker. As he loves the juice of the grape and potato, he falls down the steps of Mrs. Cassidy's rooming house, breaks his leg, and gets evicted. His leg becomes gangrenous and after its removal, he is rescued by an old friend, Jake Leclerc, who allows him to reside at his wharf-side apartment. Cronin's wife had died several years before from tuberculosis and his daughter, Kathleen, obtains a job for Terrence at the local library. During this employment and his slow recuperation, he meets the attractive, officious, and middle aged head librarian, Rebecca Kaplan, and, interesting complications ensue...