diff --git a/netplan/cli/commands/set.py b/netplan/cli/commands/set.py
index ee82fa0..ae3b215 100644
--- a/netplan/cli/commands/set.py
+++ b/netplan/cli/commands/set.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 import tempfile
 import re
 import io
+import os
 
 from netplan.cli.utils import NetplanCommand
 import netplan.libnetplan as libnetplan
@@ -73,7 +74,11 @@ class NetplanSet(NetplanCommand):
             tmp.flush()
             tmp.seek(0, io.SEEK_SET)
             parser.load_nullable_fields(tmp)
-            parser.load_yaml_hierarchy(self.root_dir)
+            if self.origin_hint:
+                if os.path.isfile(filename):
+                    parser.load_yaml(filename)
+            else:
+                parser.load_yaml_hierarchy(self.root_dir)
             tmp.seek(0, io.SEEK_SET)
             parser.load_yaml(tmp)