In Sometown, U.S.A. - which is a composite of all towns in the country - Judge Wiley hears the case of little Johnny Jones who accidentally breaks the window of the wealthiest woman in town, Mrs. Barber, with an errant baseball. Chief of Police Hanlon suggests to the judge that he fine Johnny the cost of the replacement window - $1.95 - and let that be that. The judge agrees, but Johnny, who is from the "wrong side of the tracks", doesn't even have that amount, so the Chief pays the fine for him. Incensed by the Chief's actions, Mrs. Barber, who rallies all the other wealthy women of the town, petitions to the Mayor and City Council to have the Chief dismissed, citing that he does not uphold the law as he should. Believing the Chief in the right, Henry Barber, Mrs. Barber's henpecked husband who has never stood up to his wife, and their daughter, Patricia Barber, hatch a plan with the Chief to show Mrs. Barber and her followers the error in their thinking, which shows little common sense.