If You Could Only Cook

Jim Buchanan, president of Buchanan Motor Company, is engaged to Evelyn Fletcher. After his automobile design is rejected by fellow executives, he proclaims that he's sick and tired of everything and decides to take a vacation. This mood shift sets the stage for the chance meeting with Joan Hawthorne.

On vacation, Jim meets Joan Hawthorne, a job seeker who has just been evicted. She asks him to pose as her husband so they can apply for a combined job opening as butler and cook. He agrees, beginning their improvised ruse.

Jim and Joan present themselves as Mr. and Mrs. Burns and are hired by Michael Rossini. Jim secretly learns from his own butler, Jennings, and brings back sketches of his automobile designs to show Joan. Joan shows the designs to an executive from a Buchanan competitor, who recognizes Jim's style and leads to her arrest for theft.

Jim decides to tell Joan who he really is. When she misses a lunch date while in jail, he writes her a letter, abandons his butler disguise, and returns to Evelyn and his life as a businessman. This marks a turning point in their relationship.

Rossini, who has just organized a bootlegging gang, learns of Jim's trip to the Buchanan office. His associate Flash suspects Jim and reports back. Rossini has Joan bailed out and reveals the truth about Jim to her, testing her loyalty.

Joan reacts with anger upon learning Jim's deception, and Rossini uses this to justify his own schemes. He orders his henchmen to kill Jim at his wedding, raising the stakes for the couple's future. The tension between love and crime intensifies.

To win Joan over, Rossini relays information about his plan to kill Jim, and she declares that she loves Jim after all. She begs Rossini to spare his life, demonstrating a shift in her loyalties even as danger looms. This moment deepens their bond amid the looming threat.

Rossini's men abduct Jim from the wedding and rush him home. He and his gang fetch a justice of the peace to marry Jim and Joan immediately. The impromptu ceremony forces a marriage under duress, tying the lovers to a dangerous alliance.

Joan initially refuses and locks herself in her room, but Jim agrees to the plan. The gang's coercion and a calculated deception push her toward acceptance as the wedding date approaches. Tensions peak as both lovers struggle against the criminal plot.

Outside Joan's room, Rossini feigns an argument with Jim while Flash fires a gun into the air. Jim collapses as if wounded, and Joan believes he has been shot. The staged moment is designed to move her to consent through fear and romance.

The deception works: Joan rushes to Jim's side, believing he is in danger. Moved by love and the apparent peril, she prepares to stay by his side, and their bond is reaffirmed as they move toward the impromptu marriage.