A powerful tale about Alicia Hull (Davis), a fiery small town librarian who lives for the change her work gives her to introduce children to the world of books. In return for the funding to build her long desired children’s wing, the city council asks her to withdraw the title "The Communist Dream" from the library at the height of the “red scare.” When she defies their request, members of the council question some of her past activities and she is fired and branded as a subversive. Judge Ellerbe (Kelly) thinks she has been treated unfairly and calls a town meeting. Paul Duncan (Keith), an ambitious young politician and boyfriend to assistant librarian Martha Lockeridge (Hunter), sees this meeting as an opportunity to make a name for himself where he denounces Hull as a communist. His fiery rhetoric turns the whole town against Hull, except for Freddie (Coughlin), a young boy who had been her special pet. Freddie becomes more and more upset as the town turns against Mrs. Hull, until he sets fire to the library. While the library burns, the townspeople have a sudden change of heart and ask her to come back to work and supervise the building of a brand new library.