At the plush La Playa Hotel in Santa Barbara, where soldiers from the U.S. Air Force await their reassignments, officer Tony Travis notices the neighboring estate of wealthy heiress Nora Hunter and wonders what it would be like to have her money.

Meanwhile, at the Hunter estate, Nora's secretary, Sylvia Lockwood, who often impersonates her publicity-shy boss in public, informs Nora that she plans to leave for Washington with her new husband, Phil Vernon.  Nora begs Sylvia to stay until she marries her fiancée Donald, who has just returned from the war.  Sylvia agrees but when Donald appears, he tells Sylvia that he is breaking their engagement because he has fallen in love with someone else.  He advises Nora to marry a man who loves her so much that he does not care about her money.  To cheer up Nora, Sylvia suggests inviting the neighboring servicemen to a party, and Nora agrees on the condition that Sylvia pretends to be her.

At the party, Nora, posing as Sylvia, meets Tony and plays a game of pool with him.  She is charmed by Tony, but he seems to be more interested in Sylvia.  When both Nora and Tony catch a cold after becoming trapped in the estate's spouting sprinklers, Tony medicates them with a potent alcoholic drink.  While tipsy, he tells Nora that he would never marry without love.  To test Tony, Nora decides to continue her charade and invites him for a weekend at her beach house with Sylvia, Phil and Jonathan Connors, her overprotective guardian.

At the beach, Nora begins to confess her love to Tony, but is rebuffed when he confides that he is afraid to approach Sylvia because he fears her rejection.  Disillusioned, Nora urges Tony to woo Sylvia, and that night, while Phil, Connors and Nora play cards, Tony romances Sylvia in the next room.  Drunk on Tony's medicinal potion, Sylvia accepts Tony's proposal, and Connors warns Nora to stop playing games and tell Tony the truth.

Later that night, Tony sees Phil sneak into Sylvia's room, and the next morning, Tony tells Sylvia that he is breaking their engagement.  To test Tony further, Nora says that she had switched rooms with Sylvia and that Phil was visiting her.  When Phil comes to the breakfast table singing, Tony slugs him and carries Nora out of the house and marries her.  In their honeymoon motel room, Nora tells Tony to read their marriage license, and he finally realizes that he has married an heiress and not a secretary.