Valiant Lady was the story of Joan Barrett, who sacrificed a promising Broadway career for her father's sake then married a "brilliant but unstable" surgeon. The star, Joan Blaine, was a major serial personality in the heyday of Chicago radio: she was said to have been an attorney, an educator, and a musician prior to her stardom, and was one of the very few daytime actresses to get pre-title billing (most go no billing at all).

Joan Barrett was 23 years old as the serial opened. She had been raised by her father, Jim, a poor contractor. Although her birth cost Jim Barrett his wife, father and daughter shared a devotion that grew with the passing years. Dispirited after his wife's death, Jim was reduced to doing odd jobs for small change. But he resolved to leave something for his daughter: when she was still an infant, he built them a house and put it in her name._{John Dunning}