Plot
Polly Parrish works as temporary help at a New York City department store. She receives her dismissal notice at the end of the Christmas season. Returning home, she sees a stranger leaving a baby on the steps of an orphanage. To protect the baby from the cold, Polly takes it inside. The orphanage staff believe that Polly is the mother and insist that she can continue to care for her child with their help. She, however, leaves the baby.
The orphanage director searches out David, the playboy son of the store's owner J.B. Merlin, and requests that he re-hire Polly, who supposedly abandoned her child after being fired. David arranges for Polly to have a permanent position and a raise. Orphanage attendants later deliver the baby to her.
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 working. 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 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. The pair later leave and have a romantic evening, dampened only by the recollection of John, whose existence makes David hesitate. David does not feel ready to commit to a woman with a baby.
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 wants 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 (of whom he is jealous) so J.B. can understand what is going on. David ends up hurting and insulting Polly when he derides J.B.'s demand that he marry her as ridiculous. 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 the mother. She decides to flee, but the landlady proposes an alternative solution. Polly visits J.B. with Mrs. Weiss's adult son posing as her husband. Crushed, J.B. is about to accept that he misunderstood the situation, when David appears, dragging Freddie. David has bribed Freddie into saying that the latter is John's father.
Freddie breaks and declares David the father, David attacking Mrs. Weiss's son in jealousy, and J.B. now convinced that David is the father, Polly disappears and tries to flee with John. David becomes terrified that he lost Polly and John forever. When he finds her, David confesses his love and declares to J.B. that he is John's father, and intends to marry Polly. [3]
