MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN centers on greeting card poet Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), a nice guy from a small town who finds out he's the only heir to an immense fortune. When he comes to New York to live the high life, he finds he hates being rich. When he tries to give the money away to the poor, he finds himself on trial for insanity. In scathing exposés of his small-town behavior, the newspapers declare him a backwater dope. Meanwhile, Deeds falls for a woman named Mary (Jean Arthur) who turns out to be one of the offending journalists. This tale gets quite dark before its dawn, but in the end, the trial provides the means for reconciliation between Deeds and Mary. Poor Mr. Deeds has a heck of a time weathering the cynical and nasty folk who live in New York. When he's on trial, getting slandered by hypocrite after hypocrite, things get pretty depressing.