After his father's death, George Bailey gives up dreams of travel and a college education to run the family's financially troubled building and loan company. On the day before Christmas when conditions are at their worst, George tries to commit suicide. He is unsuccessful because Clarence, George's guardian angel, intervenes. Expressing the wish that he had never been born, George is made to understand the value of life when he sees how adversely lives of citizens in Bedford Falls would have been affected had he never lived.