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On their third anniversary, New York magazine publisher Van Stanhope and his wife Linda are still very much in love.  Van's mother Mimi, however, feels that his secretary, Helen "Whitey" Wilson, is too attractive not to be a temptation to Van.  Linda trusts him and refuses to give in to jealousy, even when some of her friends express the same opinion as Mimi.

Van and Whitey's relationship is strictly business, but his dependence on her, and her devotion to him, is a source of displeasure for her fiancée Joe, who wants her to give notice and marry him.  She refuses and becomes even more involved with work, helping Van to develop a secret deal to buy a "five cent" weekly from tycoon J. D. Underwood.  Because Van is afraid that Hanson House, a rival publishing concern, will ruin his deal, he and Whitey have to be very secretive, even from Linda.

At an ice skating party for Stanhope Publications, Linda's jealousy is aroused by a catty remark by one of the executive wives, and she asks Van to transfer Whitey.  They quarrel over her jealousy, but make up that night.

A short time later, when Van has to go to an advertising convention in Havana, he won't let Linda accompany him because he needs to corner Underwood to close the deal.  He later has to summon Whitey to join him, and they work round the clock to finish the needed paperwork for the offer to Underwood.  When the deal is closed, they celebrate and for a moment are strongly attracted to each other, but nothing happens.  Linda calls a few moments later, however, and when Whitey answers the telephone, she assumes the worst.

When Van returns to New York, Linda refuses to listen to him and begins divorce proceedings.  Van tries to get her back, but gives up and invites Whitey to sail with him for Bermuda.  She has fallen in love with him but, realizing that his happiness is with his wife, she goes to Linda, who is about to sail for Europe, and tells her what a fool she would be to give her husband up.  Linda then goes back to Van and, as Whitey leaves the office, she is met by Joe.

Notes
Based on the short story "Wife Versus Secretary" by Faith Baldwin in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (May 1935).

Most written contemporary and modern sources list the surname of Clark Gable's character as "Sanford." On screen credits give only the first name of "Van," although he is called "Mr. Stanhope" many times throughout the film.  In the breakfast table scene between "Van" and "Linda," early in the film, she calls him "Jake" rather than "Van."  There is no further mention of the name "Jake," and no explanation for its use in that one scene.

At one point in the plot, a new issue of a magazine is brought to Van's attention and the camera focuses on an article written by Alice Duer Miller (co-screenwriter of Wife vs. Secretary) entitled "Are We Debutantes or Are We Mice?"  At that point Van says to his subordinate "Hey, Alice has written a very nice article here." According to a news item in HR, William Powell was announced as the male lead in the picture, opposite Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy several months before Miller's story appeared in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan.  Other news items note that Powell was too busy with other projects to appear in the picture when it finally went into production.  This was the first film made by Loy after her return to work at MGM following a highly publicized salary dispute with MGM.

Includes the song "Thank You for a Lovely Evening," music and lyrics by Jimmy McHugh.