 Youngblood Hawke is a truck driver from Kentucky who comes to New York City to become a hot-shot writer. Almost immediately, he meets editor Jeanne Green. She sees great promise in Hawke s writing and falls for the handsome Kentuckian while helping him put together his first book deal. His first novel is moderately successful, but it is soon transformed into a Broadway play by a has-been stage actress. Jeanne discovers that Youngblood has an effect on a great many women, so she takes a job at a new publishing company. Soon after, Hawke s second novel is heralded and he becomes the toast of the town. He then has an affair with a married socialite. His third novel bombs and is also panned by critics...Hawke s financial state declines into hard times. Returning to Kentucky to work on his next book, he contracts pneumonia before realizing that his first editor Jeanne was his ideal woman.