You Can’t Buy Everything

On Christmas Day in 1893, in New York City, Hannah Bell drags her son Donny to a children's clinic and uses a false name to avoid paying. She learns that John Burton has been named vice president of the Knickerbocker Bank, a development that enrages her. She confronts her old friend Asa Cabot, who declines to let her withdraw easily and instead takes her to the bank vaults to discuss her substantial assets.

Kate Farley recognizes Donny at the clinic and they catch up. She later visits Hannah and gently urges her to support the clinic under her real name. Kate insists Hannah donate $500 to the clinic, highlighting the importance of giving back.

By 1904, Hannah is thrifty to a fault, duping a conductor into paying for her ticket and clipping coupons in her own vault. She boasts that her assets rival the bank's, framing her thrift as saving everything for her son. A client privately labels her the 'tightest tightwad' in New York.

Donny, the valedictorian of his Princeton class, longs to become a writer. Hannah, however, pushes him to join the family bank and to write letters instead of pursuing a literary career.

In 1906, Kate invites Dr. Lorimer to visit Hannah in Newport to evaluate her. Lorimer refers to Hannah as 'Hannibal' and notes that her mental state has worsened over thirty years since her marriage to Harry Bell. He suggests bringing Hannah and Donny together not to reconcile but to uncover what scarred her.

At a Newport social gathering, Burton can't attend, but Lorimer introduces Donny to Burton's daughter, Elizabeth, aboard a yacht. Hannah secretly relishes the attention and the connection forming between her son and Burton's family.

Almost a year later, Donny proposes to Elizabeth, but she fears that he may be unable to stand up to his domineering mother. The couple's future hangs in the balance as Hannah's influence looms.

Hannah storms into Burton's office and accuses him of trying to gain her money through Elizabeth. He refuses to interfere with the couple, though he worries that Donny has inherited his mother's 'taint' of pathological avarice.

The Panic of 1907 hits. The Clearing House Committee asks for a desperate loan backed by gilt-edged securities. Hannah sees a $5 million demand loan on Burton's railroad shares and agrees to authorize the loan, forcing Burton to forfeit his stock rather than abandon depositors.

Donny and Elizabeth return from their European honeymoon to headlines about Hannah wresting control of the railroad from Burton. In the bank's vault, Donny confronts his mother, declaring she has never loved anything—and showing her a paper Burton kept. She protests innocence, but a crowd swarms around them as they part ways.

Donny and Elizabeth plan to move to San Francisco, where he has a job at a newspaper revived after the 1906 earthquake. Kate urges them to see Hannah, but Donny refuses, choosing his own path away from his mother's orbit.

Back in Kate's house, Hannah endures a fourth week of pneumonia as Donny returns and they share a tearful reconciliation. Burton arrives to thank her for returning the railroad stocks, which she dismisses, while Dr. Lorimer remarks that she has had enough excitement for one day. Hannah retorts with a wry line about pneumonia, asking whose it is—hers or mine.