Plot

Emotions are ignited among the complacent townsfolk when a handsome drifter arrives in a small Kansas community on the morning of the Labor Day picnic.

On the morning of a small-town Labor Day picnic, drifter Hal Carter (William Holden) blows into town to visit an old fraternity buddy (Alan Benson) who also happens to be the son of the richest man in town. Hal is an egocentric braggart--all potential and no accomplishment. He meets up with Madge Owens, the town beauty queen, who is Alan Benson's girlfriend.—Erik L. Ellis <ele@eece.unm.edu> / Hans Delbruck

Drifter Hal Carter hitchhikes by train to a small town to visit his college friend Alan Benson, the son of industrialist Mr. Benson, the wealthiest person in town. Hal asks Ms. Helen Potts for a job and the old lady, who feels affection for him, tells him that nobody works on Labor Day. She gives him breakfast and meets her next-door neighbor, gorgeous Marjorie "Madge" Owens, Alan's girlfriend. Then Hal is welcomed by Alan, who asks him to go to the picnic with Madge's younger sister Millie. Hal is a braggart, but attractive and gentle, and he becomes successful with the local girls, but he falls in love with Madge, and Alan feels that his best friend has betrayed him.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Hal Carter is a drifter whose life thus far hasn't amounted to much. He got as far as his third year in college, and since then has tried his hand at a number of things, all without success. He decides to head for Kansas to find his old college buddy Alan Benson, the son of a wealthy man. It's Labor Day and most of the town is preparing to go to the annual picnic. Hal finds his old friend but is immediately taken with Alan's beautiful girlfriend, Madge Owens. Madge's mother very much wants her to marry Alan and Madge likes him, but it's apparent that she doesn't love him. Sparks fly between her and Hal.—garykmcd

Of the Owens sisters, 19-year-old Madge is "the pretty one" and high-school senior Millie is "the smart one" although each would like to be perceived to be a little more like the other. Millie makes no effort to be feminine, believing it will put her deeper into Madge's shadow in comparison. Madge wants to be more than just an object to be looked at. She believes her current boyfriend Alan Benson sees her solely in that light. He wants to marry her, but she isn't sure she loves him. Madge's mother Flo wants her to marry wealthy Alan if only to get her into a better life than she had with her deadbeat husband who left them, so that they had to open their home as a boarding house to make ends meet. Alan's father, who owns most of the grain elevators in their small Kansas town, feels that Madge isn't good enough for his son. On Labor Day, Alan's old fraternity brother Hal Carter, whom he hasn't seen since their college days, unexpectedly arrives in town. Hal is a drifter who comes from a poor family and could only afford to go to college, where he was eventually dismissed for poor grades, because of a football scholarship. Hal is at the end of his rope and has come to ask Alan for a job, somewhat naively believing he can get a white-collar office job complete with a secretary. Hal is all bravado, which captivates some and puts off others, but overall he's seen as a fresh breath of masculinity by most of the women in town. As Hal spends time with Alan, the Owens, spinster schoolmarm Rosemary Sydney (the Owens' boarder), and Rosemary's somewhat beau Howard Bevans, over the course of the day, mostly at the town's annual Labor Day picnic, Hal and Madge each find in the other something that is missing from their lives that they believe could be fulfilled by the other--which would be against Alan's plans--while Rosemary, who believed she was still young and desirable, comes to certain realizations about her life.—Huggo

A handsome stranger ignites passions at a small-town dance. Beginning with his college fraternity buddy, both youthful students and others old enough to have children are faced with the regrets, whether their own or those of others from less than ideal homes. Should one envy a pretty other? Should another not marry at all? Wouldn't this pretty thing fall into misfortune if mother not make decisions for her? How are things for real in this small town? What are the passions which cannot be held down? And What part can a stranger play if he's not dishonest to his truest self?