A wealthy woman goes to Greenwich Village to retrieve her nieces from an artist and is enchanted by the life-style.
Susan Fletcher (Miriam Hopkins) says good-bye to three princes she does not want to marry. Her father Fletcher (Henry Stephenson) learns that they can't get his grandchildren from their uncle. Susan meddles in the business of John O'Halloran (Ray Milland) and asks to rent a room from Dermont O'Neil (Alec Craig) in Greenwich Village. Susan takes a bath, and John comes in to fix the plaster. They help drunk Karl (Walter Abel). Two girls tell Susan they don't go to school and describe John, who tells Susan he is raising his nieces Katie (Marianna Strelby) and Joan (Betty Philson) so their grandfather won't ruin them. John wants to loan Susan money but finds she has a roll. Susan tells the girls it is not her money. Dermont gives Susan a job dressing as a Bohemian, and John has Mike (Guinn Williams) alter the dress for her. In a restaurant the princes recognize Susan; so she acts lower class. John and Mike give Susan wine to get her story, and Susan mails off the $100, saying she is paying a debt. While leaving, her dress falls off.
John gets Susan an acting job and kisses her. Susan acts, selling products; but she and John are fired. Susan calls her father that John got a new job. John takes Susan to Mike's boxing match; but Susan sees blood and faints. Susan interferes, and Mike knocks out the referee. Susan tells John to enter an art contest, but he sells vacuum cleaners door-to-door. Susan asks her father to back off, because she is going to marry John. She asks John to marry her. John gets a summons, and the girls were taken. John learns that Susan is a Fletcher and slaps her. In the hearing Mrs. Bell-Rivington (Margaret Dumont) questions Joan, but the doctor says the girls are normal. Susan says that John can't take care of them, and the girls are given to Fletcher.
Katie and Joan don't like their grandfather, and Susan says she will take them back to John. Susan cries, and they agree to leave John alone so he can paint. Karl says that John has not been painting at all. Susan finds John and says that Joan is ill. She has him drive, and police arrest him on several charges. Susan, Joan, Katie, Karl, and Mike insist that John paint a picture in jail. John gets no food and sees other eating. John draws a caricature of Susan and Fletcher. John gets out. David Larimore (Russell Hicks) calls to buy the picture. Susan meddles and get Fletcher bidding against Larimore. In the final scene John and Susan kiss.
This comedy exposes a wealthy young woman to the Bohemian artistic spirit, and she falls in love with a free-thinking artist, thus challenging traditional social customs.