A young man leaves Ireland with his landlord's daughter after some trouble with her father, and they dream of owning land at the big giveaway in Oklahoma ca. 1893. When they get to the new land, they find jobs and begin saving money. The man becomes a local barehands boxer, and rides in glory until he is beaten, then his employers steal all the couple's money and they must fight off starvation in the winter, and try to keep their dream of owning land alive. Meanwhile, the woman's parents find out where she has gone and have come to America to find her and take her back.

This film tells the story about a young man, Irving, who returns to the house where he grew up - just after the death of his father, whose reputation got destroyed by the suicide of a young woman he had an affair with. Irving left his small-town home a long time ago, after breaking off relations with his father, who was capable of all kinds of wrongdoing. In particular, Irving's old man got a girl pregnant and didn't even begin to do the right thing by her. Now that the old coot is dead and he is the sole heir, Irving has come back to town determined to right past wrongs, and see to it that the girl's family benefits from his legacy. The young man soon gets obsessed by the house and the past of his dad...