A foreign correspondent woos his former fiancee so he can maintain custody of some orphans he's adopted.

Peter Garvey, an easygoing overseas newspaper reporter for The Boston Morning Express , receives a call from his editor, George Degnan, recalling him from his post in Paris, where he has been for three years, writing articles about war orphans. George tells Pete that no one is interested in war orphans anymore, prompting Pete to recount the orphans' dire situation. George, desperate to get Pete out of Paris, offers to transfer him to the latest "hot spot," the Far East. Pete, seeing a new challenge, agrees to go, despite his great affection for the children of the orphanage at which he lives. That same day, Robert Dulac, a twelve-year-old French orphan who has "adopted" Pete as his father, runs off when a wealthy American couple arrives to adopt him. Pete, discovering that the husband is a famous symphony conductor, introduces them to Theresa, an older girl who sings opera, and despite her blindness, the couple adopts her. After he breaks the news to Bobby that he is leaving Paris, Pete receives a phonograph record from his longtime fiancée and childhood sweetheart, Emmadel "Emmy" Jones, informing him that she is tired of waiting for him and wants to get married and have children. Seeing an opportunity to adopt Bobby, Pete wires Emmy that he is coming home to marry her, and is bringing "a surprise" with him. Pete's return to America is delayed while he obtains the necessary documents to take Bobby to America, and is postponed again when Bobby refuses to go without Suzi, the little girl he found during the war and now "owns." When Pete, Bobby and Suzi finally arrive in America, several weeks late, Pete discovers that Emmy has once more tired of waiting for him and has become engaged to her boss, Wilbur Stanley, a Boston blue blood and real estate tycoon worth forty million dollars. To further complicate matters, Emmy is getting married that Saturday, the same day that Pete must be married to prevent Bobby and Suzi's being sent back to France. Pete tricks Emmy into leasing him one of Wilbur's previously rented houses and stages a news event, claiming he is a victim of "corporate greed." When Wilbur shows up to settle the matter, Pete is startled to find that Wilbur is not the old man he thought, but Pete's equal, if not superior, in every way. Pete had hoped to blackmail Wilbur into allowing him to stay in the gate house at his vast estate, but Wilbur, learning who Pete really is, readily agrees, hoping to be assured of Emmy's true affection. The two men make a bargain to allow each other to test Emmy's love for them, without getting in the other's way. At the Stanley estate, Pete meets Winifred Stanley, Wilbur's "kissing cousin," who has secretly loved Wilbur for years. At first Pete hopes to make Emmy jealous by claiming his affection for Winifred, but quickly changes tactics by trying to "Jonesify" the staid Winifred. Pete successfully teaches Winifred how to wrestle, laugh heartily and provoke wolf whistles with a seductive walk. At the wedding rehearsal, after Winifred takes Emmy's place and proclaims her love for Wilbur, the two women get into a wrestling match, and Emmy admits she is "no lady." Much to Pete's chagrin, Wilbur is not dismayed, but instead tells Emmy that he is glad she is acting like herself again rather than trying too hard to be a lady. Thinking he has won, Wilbur arranges to adopt Bobby and Suzi after marrying Emmy, but the wedding is disrupted when an FBI agent arrives with Pete in tow, claiming he tried to abduct the children. Emmy, not wanting Pete to lose the children, asks Wilbur to intercede, which he does by having Pete take his place at the altar. After the ceremony, Pete confesses to Wilbur that the FBI agent was really a fellow reporter, but the genial Wilbur congratulates him on his ingenuity. Pete instructs Wilbur to take good care of Winifred, and Wilbur, finally realizing how much he cares for Winifred, happily asks her if she wants to wrestle. Emmy and Pete then drive off with their new family, and Emmy cheerfully reveals that she knew the FBI agent was a fake.