Fourteen-year-old Gloria Harkinson attends a private school in Switzerland away from her widowed actress mother Gwen Taylor, because Gwen's press agent, Dusty Turner believes that her career would be ruined if the public knew that she had a teenage daughter. Although she is very proud of her mother, Gloria is unable to talk about her. Instead, she includes stories about the fabulous adventures of a pretend father in letters that she writes and mails to herself. Felice, another student at the school, is determined to prove that Gloria is lying about her father. After Gloria makes friends with a boy from a neighboring school, she arranges to meet him in town and lies to her teachers, saying that her father is arriving for a short visit. Word gets out and Gloria is forced to supply a man whom she can claim as her father. Spotting handsome Richard Todd, a composer, she tells him a phony story and leaves with him, hoping that the other girls will believe that this man knows her. Things get complicated when two teachers call on Richard to invite him to lunch at the school. Gloria is forced to tell him the truth and he kindly plays along, by pretending to be the explorer that she has created. Richard is called to Paris on business and when Gloria learns from a newspaper that Gwen is also in Paris, she tags along, in hopes of spending a few moments with her mother. Dusty prevents the meeting, however, and Gloria sadly appears at Richard's hotel. After Richard worms the story out of her, he insists that they return and confront her mother. In the meantime, Gwen learns that Gloria is in town and that Dusty turned her away. Determined that this will never happen again, Gwen tells reporters about her daughter just as Richard and Gloria arrive. The reporters believe that Richard is Gwen's husband and it appears that Gloria will have the family she wants after all.