Bud Corliss (Robert Wagner) is an ambitious university student who is wooing fellow student Dorothy Kingship (Joanne Woodward) purely for her father's mining fortune. When he discovers that Dorothy is pregnant with his child, he realizes she is quite likely to be disinherited by her father, Leo Kingship (George Macready). She does not care about that, saying she feels "like me" for the first time in her life, free of her father's control. Bud assures Dorothy that he will take care of her, hesitates when Dorothy insists on marrying, but then seemingly agrees to it.