A.C.Baker (Anne Shirley), advertising executive for an insurance company, approaches test pilot Terry Moore (Eddie Albert) with a proposition that in return for using his picture and endorsement he will get a paid-for-a-year $1000 policy. High-risk Terry agrees. George MacAlister (Roger Pryor) fires his secretary, Miss Tracy (Mary Treen), just as she is typing up the policy and she, for spite, changes the amount from a thousand dollars to one million dollars. A.C. delivers the policy, without noticing the difference, to Terry at a party at the Frolics Club, a cheap joint wedged between a burlesque house and a flop house hotel. Three characters, an elderly hat-check "girl" known as Mother Hodges (Maude Eburne); Avery Jamieson (Raymond Walburn), a broken-down actor; and bartender Harry Gargan (Edward Brophy) are named beneficiaries. When the company discovers the error, A.C. is sent to get back the policy and, pending that, don't let Terry make any test flights.

For publicity, A. C. Baker, an advertising representative at Western Fidelity Insurance, offers ten typical young Americans a $1,000 life insurance policy. Having signed nine, A. C. approaches test pilot Terry Moore to be her tenth and final endorsement. Because he finds A. C. attractive, Terry promises to sign if she will have dinner with him. In the meantime, after she is fired, an angry secretary writes Terry's policy for one million dollars instead of one thousand dollars. That night Terry takes A. C. to a cheap nightclub, where he is popular because he spends his money freely. As his beneficiaries, Terry lists the bartender, Harry Gargan; a drunk, R. L. Barclay; and the hat check woman, Mother Edna Hodges. Later, Terry makes a pass at A. C., but she waits until he signs the policy before throwing a drink in his face and leaving. After the mistake is discovered, A. C. begs Terry to cancel his policy and sign a new one, but he refuses. The news reaches Terry's beneficiaries, who immediately plan what they will do with the money should Terry die. Meanwhile, A. C.'s boss, George MacAlister, orders her to stick close to Terry and make sure nothing happens to him. Learning that Terry has a test flight the following day, A. C. first tries to convince the airline to ground him and then lures him to a sanitarium, where he is held by force. After the flight, A. C. informs Terry that the plane crashed during the test. They quarrel bitterly, but by the end of the evening, have fallen in love and decide to get married. Although Terry agrees to cancel his policy, MacAlister asks him to keep it as the publicity over the mixup has resulted in a boost to the business. Learning of Terry's plans, the beneficiaries decide they must kill him before he marries and changes his policy in favor of his wife. Because Terry and A. C. are flying to Las Vegas for the wedding, Mother Hodges invites them to the nightclub for a celebration and bakes a wedding cake laced with sleeping powder to cause Terry to fall asleep and crash his plane. Before Terry can eat the cake, however, it is destroyed in an accident. Mother Hodges then convinces them to have some of her famous chicken soup, which unknown to Terry and A. C., comes from a can, and mixes the soup with more sleeping powder. To prevent the drowsy Terry and A. C. from changing their minds and leaving in the morning, Mother Hodges, Harry, and Barclay drive them to the airport. They then turn down Terry's invitation to accompany him to Las Vegas, but Terry tricks them into entering the plane and takes off before they are aware of what he is doing. During the flight, Mother Hodges, Harry and Barclay spend their time keeping Terry awake. The plane lands safely, and Terry and A. C. are married.