Chicago newspaper reporter and aspiring playwright Jerry Corbett and heiress Joan Prentice meet at a house party and fall in love. Despite Jerry's reputation as a drinker and his poor economic status, Joan accepts his marriage proposal. Joan's father does his best to prevent the union, offering Jerry money to back out, but Jerry refuses. When Jerry shows up late and drunk for their engagement party, everyone thinks Joan will see the error of her ways, but she remains steadfast and marries him. Jerry works on his plays at home and remains sober even while receiving rejection notices from publishers. Finally, Jerry's play When a Woman Says No is bought, and he and Joan go to New York for the production. The play stars Jerry's former flame, Claire Hempstead. The night of the premiere, Jerry becomes intoxicated and when his friend Buck brings him home in a stupor, Jerry mistakes Joan for Claire. Although she realizes Jerry started drinking again only when he was around Claire, Joan insists on staying with him in New York. When she finds him leaving one night to go to Claire's, she throws him out, but the next day, she informs him that she has decided to behave as if they had a modern marriage and so intends to take up with some lovers herself. So, while Jerry is making his usual "Merrily we go to hell" toast with Claire, Joan toasts the "holy state of matrimony--single lives, single beds and triple bromides in the morning" with her date, Charlie Baxter. On New Year's Eve, Joan finds out that she is pregnant, and is warned by the doctor of her poor physical condition. She tries to tell Jerry, but he is too preoccupied with Claire to listen, and so she leaves him. Jerry soon realizes that Claire means nothing to him, while Joan, to whom he has never professed his love, means everything. Jerry returns to Chicago, works again at the newspaper and remains sober, but Joan's father prevents any attempt he makes at contacting her. Finally, Jerry hears of Joan's pregnancy from the gossip columnist and rushes to the hospital. Joan's father attempts to prevent him from visiting her, even though she asks for him, but Jerry pushes his way through and finds his wife gravely ill. She has lost the baby, but Jerry has returned to give her his undying love.