The play is about two brothers, having fallen in love with the same woman, head down diverging paths in life. The younger brother, who enjoys literature, dreams to go on quests beyond the horizon. On the day of his voyage, he chooses to marry the lady and remain to work in the farm. His brother, an accomplished farmer, rashly decides to go to sea in his stead. Five years later, the younger brother became an unsuccessful farmer, and the elder one, a financially ruined investor. In the end, the dying younger brother realizes that the release from his miseries lies just beyond the horizon.
 
Beyond the Horizon, premiered in 1920, was Eugene O'Neill's first full-length drama, winning him a Pulitzer Prize as well as an unsurpassed respect in American theatre history.