 The mysterious Mrs. Eleanor Carter (Virginia Field) moves to Springfield with her two teen-age children Jimmy (Gary Vinson) and Cathy (Judy Busch). Eleanor makes friends with the town s social leader, Mrs. Wellington (Ellen Corby), who supports her idea for a town youth center, and she is aided by Tom Griffith (Douglas Kennedy), the high school principal. At the town s annual picnic, to which Eleanor has bought a band (Les Brown and His Band of Reknown), the town busy-body, Eunice (Irene Ryan), reveals what she had learned from Eleanor s past.