Orphaned at a young age and left to care for her younger sister, Jeanine, Marjorie Turner thought her luck had changed when she met her future husband, Harry. However, shortly after they wed, Harry joined his family’s medical practice, and Marjorie realized she would be forever beholden to her overbearing, judgmental in-laws. Having sacrificed her dream of becoming a writer, Marjorie now struggles to be the perfect housewife while Harry neglects her in the bedroom. One day, Marjorie goes to the fish store where her sister Jeanine works. Although she encourages Jeanine to pursue a career, Jeanine defends her carefree lifestyle and suggests Marjorie is sexually frustrated and should have an affair. Marjorie leaves in a huff, and goes to the grocery store to buy food for a dinner party she is hosting that night, in honor of Harry’s brother Charles, who is returning from a fifteen-year stint overseas. In the checkout line, Marjorie meets a handsome stranger who is on his way to a party. He buys a fruit basket and arranges for it to be delivered to the party, which he admits he would rather not attend. In an uncharacteristic move, Marjorie encourages him to ditch the party, and accompanies him to a hotel room at the nearby Summit Bluff Sheraton. After a vigorous lovemaking session, she tells the man it can never happen again, but he is unresponsive. She prods him and realizes he is dead. In a panic, she flees the hotel room, tripping over a box of vertical blinds in the hallway on her way out. Nicholas “Nick” Meany, a hapless vertical blinds salesman who was hoping to sneak into one of the rooms and install his wares, discovers a wallet Marjorie accidentally dropped, but does not catch her in time to return it. He then notices the door to her hotel room is ajar and sneaks in. Marjorie arrives home and avoids Harry on her way to the shower. Still panicked, she calls police and leaves an anonymous tip about a dead body at the Summit Bluff Sheraton. Meanwhile, Nick Meany accidentally drops a rod while installing his blinds, hitting the corpse which is covered up by a sheet. Nick pulls down the sheet to discover the dead body. Harry’s family, sister Iris Turner-Hunter, and parents Rose and Charles, arrive for the dinner party. As Jeanine helps a frazzled Marjorie in the kitchen, they are interrupted by several phone calls from Nick, who stutteringly informs Marjorie that her “husband” is dead. He also reveals he has her wallet, and Marjorie promises to retrieve it in twenty minutes. She tells Harry’s family that she left her wallet at the grocery store just as a fruit basket arrives at the front door, with a card from Charles Turner instructing the family to start without him. Marjorie gasps at the realization that the handsome stranger she slept with was Harry’s brother. Back at the hotel, believing he has killed the man, Nick Meany frets over the consequences as his brother, Wilbur Meany, is up for a promotion to Chief of Police. Marjorie arrives and conspires with Nick to stage Charles’s death as a suicide, so neither of them will be implicated. At the same time, Wilbur Meany gets a call to investigate Marjorie’s “anonymous” phone call to the police station. He goes to Marjorie’s home, but only Jeanine is there. She explains Harry and his family went to a restaurant and invites Wilbur inside for tea. They flirt, and Jeanine assures Wilbur that Marjorie did not call about an emergency. The next morning, the Turners mourn Charles’s death. Marjorie goes to lunch with Jeanine, who announces that she met someone last night. As she describes the policeman, Marjorie becomes hysterical and confesses to having an affair with Harry’s now-dead brother. At the hospital, it soon becomes clear that the death of Charles Turner was not a suicide, despite the assortment of prescription pills lodged in his throat. That afternoon, Nick Meany goes to the police station and turns himself in for killing Charles. Although the controversy threatens to ruin his chances for a promotion, Wilbur Meany tells Jeanine he now only cares about helping his brother. The next morning, an exhausted Harry returns from the police station and calls a family meeting. As usual, Marjorie is ordered to make coffee for the Turners when they arrive. However, fed up, she blurts out that she had an affair with Charles, who may have died mid-coitus. Iris calls Marjorie a “slut,” and Rose asserts that she was never “one of us.” Harry loses his temper and sends them away. Marjorie packs her things to leave, but Harry insists on being the one to leave and storms out. Without Harry, Marjorie falls into a depression. She eventually channels her sorrow into writing. Soon, Wilbur is promoted to police chief and Jeanine moves in with him. Absolved of Charles’s murder, Nick thrives at work when the Summit Bluff Sheraton decides to purchase his vertical blinds for every room. Marjorie sends off her first completed story to publishers, and finally gets a call from Harry. He informs her he has set up his own medical practice and congratulates her on her story, which Jeanine secretly sent him. Harry asks Marjorie if he can see her soon, and she excitedly says yes. Moments later, he surprises her by showing up at the door. She asks if his heart is in good condition and draws him inside.