John Avery, a Bell Telephone manager, arrives home to find things that he doesn't understand, including his wife Helen Avery selling some of their possessions, someone in the process of buying his favorite recliner. When Helen doesn't seem to be able to see him, he then remembers what happened a month ago. It was a busy time at work including he needing to take his refresher course on defensive driving, mandatory for all employees who operate a company vehicle, he understanding the seriousness of needing to do so. He, Helen and their two children, Tommy and Kathy, are taking a last minute trip to his mother-in-law's place two hundred fifty miles away, a trip they had already planned on doing in a couple of weeks. John uses the opportunity of the long drive to teach Tommy, in the front passenger seat, the rules of defensive driving, not difficult to do as they encounter the same seemingly oblivious driver causing one near accident after another, the latest driving well below the speed limit on a winding two lane road causing a backup of angry drivers behind her. All of the Averys will proverbially answer John's somewhat rhetorical question of how much one would trade in their life for for taking a chance on the road.