Following her husband’s death, Minna runs a small boarding house in Torquay and brings up her son, Tim. Tim becomes a journalist for the local paper, struggling to get by-lines and hoping to make it to a national some day.

However, the outbreak of the Great War disrupts his life. Tim resists volunteering for the sake of his mother who can’t bear to see her only son go to war, but eventually his guilt at not helping his country makes him sign up for the Royal Flying Corps. Sent home after a breakdown, he discovers his true love, but she is pressured to marry another.