Young Bart Collins (Tommy Rettig) lives with his widowed mother Heloise (Mary Healy (entertainer)). The bane of Bart's existence are the hated piano lessons he endures under the tutelage of the autocracy Dr. Terwilliker (Hans Conried). Bart feels that his mother has fallen under Terwilliker's influence, and gripes to plumber, August Zabladowski (Peter Lind Hayes), without result. While hammering at his lessons, Bart dozes off and enters a musical dream.