Playboy Kenneth Marquis, David Niven, is divorcing his third wife, who is represented by her sharp-eyed attorney, Harry P. Archer Tom Tully. Archer’s teenage daughter, Corliss Archer, Shirley Temple, is immediately captivated by Marquis’s charm and the carefree, high-living lifestyle he offers. The division of the marriage sets the stage for a clash of reputations, money, and appetite for scandal that threads through the Archers’ household.
Marquis sends a box of candy to Corliss, a gesture that infuriates Archer, who believes it’s a jab at his settlement demands. Archer also forbids Corliss’ boyfriend, Dexter Franklin Darryl Hickman, from dating her after spotting him at the Penguin Club, a restaurant that doubles as a gambling joint. Undeterred, Corliss manipulates Dexter into taking her to the club, but their night ends with a police raid. They hide in the basement, and when they return home, Corliss is late enough to trigger questions. To cover up, she feigns amnesia, leaving her parents puzzled and more suspicious than ever.
To refresh Corliss’ memory, Archer reads her diary, which contains a string of imaginary romantic trysts with Marquis. The diary’s contents, together with Marquis’ candy gift, push the Archers toward a bleak conclusion about their daughter’s loyalties and truthfulness. Enter Corliss’ friend Raymond Pringle, a neighborhood paper publisher Robert Ellis, who shows Marquis some diary entries and threatens to publish them unless Marquis buys advertising space.
Marquis privately visits the Archers and proclaims that every word in the diary is true, declaring his love for Corliss and his desire to make her his fourth wife. Archer erupts in anger, while Corliss is caught between defending herself and the mounting pressure to admit the diary’s supposed truth. Corliss eventually reveals that the diary was a fabrication meant to provoke Dexter and stir jealousy, but Marquis presses on, insisting the diary is genuine. Dexter arrives and, after considering Corliss’ version, finds himself torn between loyalty and doubt, leaving the adults unconvinced about what really happened that night.
The tension escalates when Marquis announces his engagement to Corliss in the newspaper, with plans to sue the Archers for breach of promise if the engagement is ever canceled. The Archers postpone rescinding to avoid the appearance of an immediate breach, and Marquis continues to send gifts for Corliss, all while the media circles closer. A national magazine, Glimpse, runs photographs of Marquis with Corliss, intensifying the sensational mood surrounding the couple.
Uncle George, Roy Roberts, a Navy chaplain, visits and offers to perform the wedding, injecting a note of old‑fashioned ceremony into the chaos. The wedding rehearsal, held at the Archers’ home, becomes the focal point for a crucial revelation: Dexter reveals he has a witness who can attest to Corliss’ version of events from the night she was out late. Marquis’ lie is finally exposed, and the men escort him outside, where an offscreen fight erupts. Both Archer and Dexter return bloodied, while Marquis, with his eye blackened, staggers past an open window, sneering at Archer and Dexter as he leaves the scene. The clash leaves a lasting impression on a town already buzzing with scandal, power, and the uneasy question of who is telling the truth.
