Ex-millionaire B.J. Nolan (Charles Winninger) has frittered away his fortune on one mad scheme after another while his millionaire son, Kenneth (Joel McCrea), is quite tight with his fortune. Unless he's "tight" on alcohol; then he tries to buy everything in sight. Desperate to save his latest project – a low-income housing development – B.J. drafts lady architect Virginia Travis (Miriam Hopkins) to help him extract the funding he needs from his son. Kenneth has returned from Europe with a complication or two: a fiancée (Leona Maricle) and her "uncle" (Erik Rhodes), who are actually gold-digging grifters. While Virginia gets wise to what's up with Kenneth's fiancée, she realizes she has no choice but to "fight firewater with firewater." While Kenneth ping-pongs between pliable and intractable, Virginia realizes she has fallen for him.