When Dorothy wants to marry Bob Robert Agnew her mother Mildred forbids the match Dorothy angrily asserts that Mildred might reconsider if her own mother had forbid her marriage The rest of the film is a flashback as Mildred recalls her own youth when her dictatorial mother did forbid her to marry Lyman Lyman enlisted with Teddy Roosevelts Rough Riders to fight in the SpanishAmerican War but was killed in battle