A New York City assistant librarian under her long time friend Miss Margaret Gordon, Allie Smith has always placed a guard around herself, as such leading a sheltered life. However, with the recent death of her mother with who she lived, Allie is beginning to feel a certain void in her life, not so much for the company of people, but to explore those things of the world about which she has only read. So when she agrees to be the fourth in a set-up double date, she eventually falls under the spell of her date, Charlie Riggs, who tells her of his world travel to exotic locales. He also talks about his current business deal to open up a movie studio. Allie eventually falls in love with Charlie, who asks her to marry him. It isn't until a specific incident on their honeymoon in Atlantic City that Allie learns that all Charlie's stories are just talk, he a shyster whose outlandish business schemes would only appeal to other shysters who are in turn trying to bilk him. She also learns that he has an outstanding job offer to work as a runner at a brokerage firm for $30 a week, a decent, honest job which he refuses to take while he waits for that big strike. By this time, Allie, without telling him that she knows about his lies, hopes that wanting to make their marriage work will make him change. A change of situation in their personal life and some external forces may be added impetus, but a taxi dancer named Maisie, who had tried to get her hooks into Charlie before he and Allie got married, may be an obstacle to that change.