Act I
In August 1946, Joe Keller, a self-made businessman, and his wife Kate are visited by a neighbor, Frank. At Kate's request, Frank is trying to figure out the horoscope of the Kellers' missing son Larry, who disappeared in 1943 while serving in the military during World War II. There has been a storm and the tree planted in Larry's honor has blown down during the month of his birth, strengthening Kate’s belief that Larry is coming back, while Joe and Chris, the Kellers' other son, believe differently. Furthermore, Chris wishes to propose to Ann Deever, who was Larry's girlfriend at the time he went missing and who has been corresponding with Chris for two years. Joe and Kate react to this news with shock. When Ann arrives, it is revealed that her father, Steve Deever, is in prison for selling cracked cylinder heads to the Air Force, causing the deaths of twenty-one pilots in 1943. Joe was his partner but was exonerated of the crime. Ann admits that neither she nor her brother are in touch with their father anymore. After a heated argument, Chris proposes alone to Ann, who accepts. Chris also reveals that he has survivor's guilt from losing all his men in a company he led. Meanwhile, Joe receives a phone call from George, Ann's brother, who is coming there to settle something.
Act II
Chris avoids telling his mother about his engagement with Ann. Their next-door neighbor Sue emerges and reveals to Ann that everyone on the block thinks Joe is equally guilty of the crime of supplying faulty aircraft engines. Shortly afterward, George Deever arrives and reveals that he has just visited the prison to see his father, Steve. The latter claimed that Joe told him by phone to "weld up and paint over" the cracked cylinders and send them out, and later gave a false promise that Joe would take the blame. George insists his sister Ann cannot marry Chris Keller, the son of the man who destroyed the Deevers. Frank reveals his horoscope, which implies that Larry is alive, to Kate's pleasure. Joe maintains that he was bedridden with the flu on the fateful day of dispatch. They manage to settle George, but Kate lets slip that Joe has not been sick in fifteen years. Despite George's protests, Chris and Ann send him away.
After Kate claims to Joe and Chris that moving on from Larry would reveal Joe as a murderer, Chris concludes that George was right. Joe, out of excuses, confesses that he sent out the cracked airheads to avoid closure of the business, intending to notify the base later that they needed repairs. However, when the fleet crashed and made headlines, Joe lied to Steve and abandoned him at the factory to be arrested. Chris cannot accept his explanation that it was done for the family and exclaims in despair that he doesn't know what to do about his father.
Act III
Chris has left home. At 2 am, Kate advises Joe to express willingness to go to prison and make Chris relent, should he return. As he only sought to make money for his family, Joe is adamant that their relationship is above the law. Soon after, Ann emerges and expresses her intention to leave with Chris regardless of Kate's disdain. When Kate angrily refuses again, Ann sends Joe away and reluctantly provides Kate with a letter from Larry. Chris returns and remains torn on whether to turn Joe over to the authorities, knowing it doesn't erase the death of his fellow soldiers or absolve the world of its natural merciless state.
Joe returns and excuses his guilt on account of the abundance of profiteers in the world. Chris wearily responds that he knew but believed that Joe was better than the others. Ann takes the letter and provides it to Chris while Kate desperately tries to push Joe away. Chris reads the letter to Joe out loud. It implies that Larry committed suicide because of his father's guilt. Joe agrees to turn himself in. He goes inside to get his coat and kills himself with a gunshot off-stage. The play ends with Chris, in tears, being consoled by Kate to not take Joe's death on himself.
Title
It's Joe's monologue at the end of Act III “Sure, [Larry] was my son. But I think to him they were all my sons. And I guess they were, I guess they were” that gives the play its title.
Timeline
The precise dates of events in the play are unclear. However it is possible to construct a timeline of All My Sons using the dialogues. The action takes place in August 1946, in the Midwestern United States with the main story taking place on a Sunday morning.[11]
- Autumn 1943: Joe encourages Steve to supply the USAAF with faulty cylinder heads for aircraft engines
- Autumn 1943: After 21 pilots crash, Joe and Steve are arrested
- November 25, 1943: Having read about his father's arrest, Larry deliberately crashes his plane off the coast of China
- 1944: Joe is released
- August 1946, a Sunday morning
- 4 am: Larry's memorial (tree)blows down
- Ann arrives at the Keller home
- George finishes his prison visit
