Owen Waterbury Kirk Douglas is a successful novelist and notorious playboy who hires aspiring writer Stephanie 'Steve' Gaylord Laraine Day as his secretary, a dream come true for Steve who admires Owen and hopes to become a published author herself. She soon discovers that the egomaniacal Owen has cycled through a string of secretaries who quit under his temper and demanding ways, all while he drowns in debt and struggles to start a contracted novel despite a lucrative advance from his publisher. The couple marry, and Steve endures as Owen’s partner and secretary, the relationship feeding her own drive to write while he clings to a lifestyle built on charm and deceit.
Owen’s fragile ego buckles when his life becomes the raw material for a manuscript that includes a character based on his publisher, and the work is rejected for publication by a major house. The episode exposes Owen’s fear of losing control and his claim that he cannot have a wife who is also his secretary, prompting him to fire Steve and revert to his old pattern of hiring a glamorous admirer to take the post. In the midst of this, Steve steadfastly protects her own ambitions: she presents both her completed novel and Owen’s rejected manuscript to her former employer, Charles Harris, a major publisher who is romantically drawn to Steve. Harris, who is slyly perceptive, agrees to read both manuscripts and weighs their futures with care.
Harris ultimately finds Owen’s manuscript intriguing but standard, while Steve’s manuscript shines with originality, promise, and a depth that hints at literary prizes. This turn of events pushes Steve toward the reality of success, even as it strains the marriage and aggravates Owen, who pitches renewed jealousy and control over the narrative of their lives. Steve wrestles with the tension between loyalty and ambition, wondering whether publishing her own work will heal or wound the bond she shares with Owen.
As the publishing door opens for Steve, she pivots to secure a better future, hiring an attractive male secretary of her own to shoulder some of the attention Owen once demanded. This power shift ignites a fresh clash: Owen snaps and asserts that he will be the one to serve as her secretary, a reversal that brings the couple back to a heated negotiation about credit, voice, and ownership. Steve agrees, and she begins to narrate a book to Owen, drawing from their life together and shaping it into a narrative that reframes their relationship as literature rather than private drama. The couple’s arguments grow sharper as Owen resists the unflattering portrayal, yet they manage to weather the conflict and find a path back to companionship, acknowledging each other’s talent and continuing their complicated dance between desire, fame, and artistic integrity.
