A struggling novelist living well beyond his means refuses the financial support of his wife.

Newlyweds Steve and Anne Merrick are happily married but cannot pay their rent. Steve is hoping his novel will make them rich so they can start a family, but he has trouble finishing it because his Bohemian friends, Polly Griscom and Biney, spend their evenings drinking his gin. Steve's publisher, Gil Morrell, whom Anne nearly married, advises Steve to quit his job and spend his days writing. Anne returns to modeling work and Steve stays at home. After a month, however, Steve is unable to accomplish much writing and makes a mess of his domestic duties. Bills pile up and when Anne discovers Steve is still on last week's chapter, they quarrel and Anne goes out. Luella, the Merricks' next door neighbor from the South, coyly asks Steve to take her to the train station, and he obliges in order to provoke Anne. That night, Anne secretly goes to Gil for money because she's pregnant, and he, like a gentleman, swears his love and writes her a check, reporting that Steve's manuscripts have improved. Anne returns home to find Polly and Biney, but no Steve. Then their friend, George Trent, who has just left his bossy, elderly millionaire wife, arrives. Steve returns and Anne thanks him for the champagne he bought for Luella. When she assumes he has been regularly taking money out of their household account for Luella, he explains he has been paying for a coat for her. To regain his self-respect, Steve takes a room and finishes his novel. After three months, George returns to his wife, and Polly and Biney intervene to reunite their friends as Anne packs for her aunt's. Steve comes home while she is showing the apartment and learns she is pregnant. Anne threatens divorce and cries behind a locked door while he sings "Thanks for the Memory." She joins him in song and they kiss.