Sean Thronton, a retired American boxing champion trying to put tragedy behind him, returns to Innifree, the Irish village of his birth. He purchases his birthplace from its current owner, enraging the wealthy Red Will Danaher who had designs on the property. On arriving at his cottage, Thornton finds it is being swept out by Mary Kate Danaher, a redheaded vision from whom he steals a not completely unwelcome kiss. After engaging in a subterfuge involving a horse race, some of the locals manage to get the disgruntled Red Will to allow his sister to be courted by the American. But the courtship ritual of the village is only the first of many local practices that the bewildered Thornton must endure if he is to have Mary Kate.