Aging shipbuilder Sam Griggs (Frank Morgan) is near the end of his career due to health problems. With the help of his friend Tom Carter (Cecil Kellaway), he has invested all of his family's money in a shaky real estate venture which he hopes will provide a large return. The rest of his family is happily unaware of the deal, preoccupied with their own future prospects.
Sam dies and meets the youthful ghost of his father Ben Griggs (Keenan Wynn), eager to shepherd his son into the afterlife. Sam insists on lingering to help his family as best he can, first persuading Ben to use his supernatural power to cause storms to help along a romance between his daughter and an oblivious lodger, and then to aid the success of his investment by impressing the potential buyer.
Having discovered his death and their own financial situation (but not the nature of his venture), Sam's wife Amy (Gladys Cooper) encourages her children to remember their father fondly. Tom arrives at their home to give the grieving family Sam's share, but succumbs to greed after writing the check and attempts to leave without informing them of their new inheritance.
Though Sam invisibly berates his faithless friend, he and his father seem helpless to prevent the betrayal. However, one last storm cast by Ben leads to Tom dying from a lightning strike. Knowing that the authorities will find the check on his body, Sam and Ben finally leave for the afterlife with Tom in tow.
After he is accused of murdering a lawman in 1901 Texas, a Mexican-American farmer flees and manages to elude a large posse for two weeks before he is finally captured.
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