A.M. “Mac” MacGregor, head of an advertising agency, pays her male secretaries poorly, treats them badly and if, despite that, one of them falls in love with her, it’s grounds for dismissal. She makes an exception for Tom Verney, a penniless painter, even letting him kiss her. Tom is good with women, so Mac assigns him the task of charming the sister of tobacco magnate Jonathan Caldwell to capture his ad account. Tom commits so fully to the task that Mac becomes jealous. Meanwhile, the southern tobacco man, a notorious woman hater, eyes Mac as a fifth wife. Seeing Tom as a rival, a calculating Caldwell encourages the painter-cum-secretary to keep Mac’s jealousy on the boil, driving a wrathful Mac to accept the southerner’s marriage proposal