Plot
Polly Parrish works at a New York City department store. Hired as temporary help, she receives her dismissal notice as the Christmas season comes to a close. Returning home, she sees a stranger leaving a baby on the steps of an orphanage. Fearing that exposure to the cold will harm the baby, Polly takes it inside. The orphanage staff believe Polly is the mother and insist that she can continue to care for her child with their help. She leaves the baby, but not before accidentally revealing where she works.
The orphanage director searches out David, the playboy son of the store's owner J.B. Merlin, and explains that a woman abandoned her child because his store laid her off, requesting that he re-hire her. David arranges for Polly to get rehired, with a permanent position and a raise, while promising that a Christmas present will be delivered to her home later that evening. The gift is actually the baby, delivered by the orphanage attendants.
Polly made arrangements with Freddie, a stockboy at the store, to enter a dance competition, so she takes the baby to David's home and leaves the child with his butler. After being thrown out of the competition with the baby, an enraged David is forced to wait for Polly's return. When she does, he threatens that she must take care of the child properly, or find herself fired, denied a recommendation, and blacklisted by every employer in the city.
Mrs. Weiss, Polly's landlady, provides baby equipment and offers to take care of the boy when Polly is at work. Unable to convince anyone that she is not the mother, and threatened by David with loss of her job if she does not assume that role, Polly gives up, names the baby "John", and starts raising him.
David continues to check in on Polly and John. David increasingly finds himself reaching out to interact with Polly, bringing her and John gifts, stopping for visits, and talking together. Freddie's misconception of the situation between David and Polly is worsened when his own seniority warrants his promotion, which he mistakenly credits to Polly putting in a good word for him with David.
New Year's Eve arrives, and David has no date. To save face, David turns to Polly. He orders clothes to be sent from the store and takes Polly to a party, playing a prank on the other guests that she cannot speak English and David must act as her interpreter. David spends the party jealous that this ruse does not prevent Polly from receiving male attention. The pair leave and have a romantic evening, dampened only by the recollection of John, whose existence makes David hesitate. Although David is falling for Polly, he is not ready to commit to a woman with a baby.
An embittered Freddie attempts to blackmail David by sending an anonymous note to J.B., saying that David has a secret child. J.B. is delighted with this news. He has long desired for David to settle down and provide him with a grandson. J.B. stalks David and sees him meet up with Polly and John.
David ends up in the same position Polly was: J.B. thinks that John is David's baby and will not believe any protests to the contrary. J.B. demands that David marry Polly. If David refuses, J.B. threatens to seize John's custody through legal means. David rushes to warn Polly about the threat and insist that she produce John's real father (whom he has long been jealous of) to prove that David is not the father. David ends up hurting and insulting Polly when he derides J.B.'s demand that he marry her as ridiculous, as he does not relish the idea of a "ready-made family". He regrets his words, but Polly makes him leave.
Polly is anxious over J.B.'s threat to bring in lawyers and investigate, since she has grown to love John and this will expose that she is not his mother. She decides to flee, but the landlady proposes an alternative solution. Polly visits J.B. with her landlady's adult son posing as her husband. Crushed, J.B. is about to accept he misunderstood the situation, when David rushes in, dragging Freddie, whom David has bribed into saying is John's father.
Freddie breaks and declares David the father, David attacking the landlady's son in jealousy, and J.B. now convinced David is the father, Polly disappears and tries to flee with John. Terrified that he lost Polly and John forever, David goes after her. When he finds her, David confesses his love and declares to J.B. that he is John's father, and intends to immediately marry Polly. [3]
