With the outbreak of World War II, two adolescent boys find themselves in jobs beyond their capabilities: Ray Reilly as the apprentice embalmer at Dugan and Son and Bill Dugan in trying to convince his parents that there is a role for him in the family business. Ray soon gains knowledge and skills to prepare him for life: hearse driving, embalming, roof patching, the importance of comic books in an adolescent girl’s life, the hidden needs of adult female pianists, and avoiding death when placed between a pack of crazed dogs and a squinty-eyed old sheriff with a big game rifle. At the war’s end, both young men have their education’s enriched by the local returning veterans.