Having lost her father to a plane crash, 5-year-old Shirley (Shirley Temple) and her mother, Mary (Lois Wilson), live with the Smythe family, for whom Mary serves as a domestic. With the exception of Uncle Ned (Charles Sellon), the Smythes don't much care for Shirley, and she greatly prefers spending time with her godfather, pilot James Merritt (James Dunn). When Mary is killed in a car accident, the distraught Shirley becomes the object of a bitter custody battle between James and Ned.