The Bixby family, Bert, Flora and teenage son Arthur, await the return of daughter Margaret, who has been working in San Francisco for a year. Also waiting for Margaret is her stuffy but prosperous fiancé, Lawrence White. When Margaret arrives, she brings sailor James Clark with her and introduces him as a friend, although she and James were married the day before. Margaret is afraid to tell her family that she is married as her mother has long desired that she marry Lawrence. Keeping their secret grows more and more difficult and Jim finally becomes annoyed and tells Flora the truth. Although Bert and Arthur are delighted by the news, Flora tells Jim to leave. He refuses to do so without Margaret, but she does not want to break her mother's heart and decides not to accompany him. Arthur intervenes and borrows the engagement ring, which Margaret has returned to Jim, and claims to be engaged to his girl friend, Valerie Jeanne Bradford, so that his mother will concentrate so much on breaking up that relationship, that she will leave Jim and Margaret alone. However, Arthur finds himself accused of child-napping and the situation is further complicated by the fact that Valerie takes the whole ruse seriously and wants to get married. When her father George threatens to shoot Arthur and tries to ruin Bert's business, he loses his daughter's affection, which she transfers to her mother, who is separated from George. Jim, however, is able to resolve the whole affair and receives Flora's approval for his marriage to Margaret. George and his wife then reconcile and Arthur decides that he will have no more to do with love, at least for another year.