Eben Adams is a talented but struggling and starving artist in New York during the Depression. After being given some advice by Miss Spinney, an art dealer on 5th Avenue, who told him that the reason his paintings aren't extraordinary, is because there isn't a drop of love in any of them. She advised him that he needed to shed the bitterness and learn to care for something very deeply before he will become a success. After learning that great truth about his art, Eben heads to Central Park, where a pretty but odd young girl named Jennie Appleton appears and strikes up an unusual friendship with him.