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 On a Friday afternoon, the main lobby of New York
City's most elegant hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria, is busy with the excitement of
arriving, departing and intermingling guests. Among those staying at the
hotel are: Irene Malvern, a disillusioned, romance-starved movie star who
is in New York for the opening of her latest film; Chip Collyer, a seasoned war
correspondent for a newspaper who is resting before his trip to Europe; Captain
James Hollis, an Air Force flyer who has returned from the war with a shrapnel
fragment lodged near his heart; and Martin X. Edley, a crooked oil stock
promoter intent on defrauding the visiting Bey of Aribajan.
As part of his scheme, Edley gives the bey the false
impression that he is in a partnership with Mr. Jessup, the president of
Volcanic Oil. Bunny Smith, an attractive stenographer who dreams of
wealth, sees Edley as her ticket to riches, but develops an affection for James
soon after she learns that he is scheduled to undergo a risky operation in
Washington the following week.
Meanwhile, Irene learns that a man has been trying
to get closer to her expensive jewels by romancing her maid, Anna. Irene
tells Anna to deliver her room key to the jewel thief, in the hopes that she
might persuade him through reason to give up his scheme. After asking the
hotel police to station a house detective outside her door, Irene waits for the
jewel thief to enter. When James loses the sheet music for a song he
wrote, a hotel staff member finds it and mistakenly delivers it to orchestra
leader Xavier Cugat. Cugat likes the song and promises James that he will
play it at his next show. Later that night, Oliver Webson, a cub reporter
covering the Edley deal, tells Chip that Edley is negotiating with the bey, and
that their contract is bad for the country. Chip offers Oliver help in
getting his story and, while doing so, accidentally enters Irene's room. Irene
accuses Chip of being a jewel thief, and Chip, who has had a long-standing
infatuation with the actress, does not reveal his true identity.
After conversing much of the evening, Irene allows
Chip to stay in her room to avoid being caught by the house detective.
James, meanwhile, falls in love with Bunny and, after telling her his life
story, plans a Saturday dinner date with her. On Saturday morning, Irene
realizes that Chip is not a jewel thief when Anna telephones her and tells her
that the crook has reformed and was with her the previous evening.
Later, when Cynthia Drew, a young bride-to-be, tells
Irene that she thinks that her fiancé, Bob, is carrying a torch for Irene, Irene
tries to prevent Cynthia from calling off the wedding by telling her that she is
married to Chip. Chip goes along with the hoax, though he has truly fallen
in love with Irene.
Edley, meanwhile, asks Bunny to be the bey's escort
at a party that night, which forces her to choose between her affection for
James and her future employment with Edley. Bunny chooses Edley and
cancels her date with James only hours before she was to meet him. Chip,
who has been enjoying his "marriage" to Irene, insists that Irene is now his
common-law bride because she has introduced him as her husband. Later that
night, in the Starlight ballroom, James sees Bunny enter the room with the bey
and is heartbroken.
On Sunday morning, a newspaper gossip column reports
Chip and Irene's supposed marriage and, though the publicity infuriates Irene,
she soon realizes that she is in love with Chip. When Monday arrives, a
newspaper exposes Edley's fraud and Bunny tells James that she will accompany
him to Washington to be with him during his operation. Before checking out of
the hotel and leaving for Europe, Chip promises to reunite with Irene when he
returns.
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