Bob Weston works for Stop, a tabloid magazine that prides itself on being known as the filthiest rag in the United States. When a colleague writes about Dr. Helen Gurley Brown, a young psychologist and author of Sex and the Single Girl, the piece questions her experience with sex and relationships, leaving her visibly offended after losing several appointments because of the sensational article. Eager to pursue the story, Bob plans a follow-up interview, but Dr. Helen Gurley Brown refuses to cooperate.
Meanwhile, Frank Broderick, a stocking manufacturer and husband to Sylvia Broderick, is tangled in marital strife. He can’t find the time to seek counseling, and Bob seizes an audacious idea: pretend to be Frank and visit Dr. Helen Gurley Brown as a patient to gather material for his editor. His plan has a double purpose—get close to the psychologist and report back to Frank with her advice.
In their first sessions, Bob comes off as bashful and smitten, gently testing the waters with a practiced, almost shy charm. Helen, insisting that it’s all a role-playing exercise and that she will play Sylvia to help his therapy, seems to respond to his courteous advances. The situation escalates when Bob fakes a suicide attempt, and the pair end up sharing a kiss in her apartment. He realizes, with a mixture of guilt and arousal, that he’s falling for Helen, which is exactly what he was supposed to avoid—leading to an ultimatum from Stop’s editor.
Helen, startled by the sudden turn of events, fears the implication of falling for a married man. On her mother’s advice, she arranges for Sylvia to return to Frank’s office, where the two of them originally met and could stand up to rival investors. Sylvia had resisted at first, but eventually accepts the plan, setting the stage for a fragile reconciliation between the couple.
Bob’s infatuation fuels further chaos when he confronts Helen again, trying to insist that his own marriage isn’t real. Helen, desperate to know the truth, asks to hear it from his wife. In a twist of misdirection, he enlists Gretchen, a nightclub singer, to pose as his wife. When Gretchen cancels at the last moment for an audition, his secretary Susan steps in. Unbeknownst to Bob, Gretchen chooses to forgo the audition and also shows up at Helen’s office, and soon three different women claim to be Mrs. Broderick. This bewildering mix-up leads to Frank’s arrest on a charge of bigamy, while Helen’s confusion intensifies.
To restore clarity, Helen brings in Rudy DeMeyer, a physician she has admired and who has long harbored a crush on her due to the initial article. As he counsels Sylvia toward forgiveness, he also helps her understand the truth about Bob’s deception. The moment of truth comes when Sylvia realizes the man visiting Helen wasn’t Frank Broderick at all but Bob Weston, Stop’s own editor. Shocked, she asks Rudy to take her to Fiji and away from the tangled web.
Back at the office, Bob refuses to let Stop publish anything about Helen, which costs him his job. The climax unfolds in a frantic chase: two cars and two cabs weaving through the streets as Frank, Sylvia, Helen, and Bob chase down their tangled fates. At the airport, Frank and Sylvia reconcile and depart for Fiji, while Rudy and Gretchen decide to travel to Hawaii together. Helen forgives Bob, who has already started a new job with Dirt magazine, and the two decide to marry in Las Vegas, closing a chaotic chapter with a blend of forgiveness and new beginnings.
