Bill Hastings begins his job at the newspaper as the writer of the advice column, "Dear Phoebe." He meets a beautiful blond sportswriter who works there, Mickey Riley, and personally intervenes in problems she is having with her boyfriend,
Mickey is displeased when Bill beats her to a story by landing an exclusive interview with a victim of the notorious "Kissing Bandit," so she helps bait a trap for the bandit.
Mickey becomes jealous when Mr. Fosdick arranges for Bill to visit a psychiatrist to help him with a bout of depression - and the psychiatrist turns out to be a beautiful woman.
Micky has a new admirer, a baseball player who's an unsophisticated rube from the hills. Bill, who's a little bit jealous, finds out the man is superstitious and uses the news to his advantage.
Bill and Mickey head to Mexico to investigate fraudulent weddings, bringing Humphrey as a witness. But the reporters discover too late that only some of the marriages are not legal and it affects them personally.
When a man who reads "Dear Phoebe" expresses the conviction that women are expensive, Bill fixes Mickey up with him on a blind date to prove him wrong.
In an effort to boost the newspaper's circulation, Mr. Fosdick makes public the "birthday" of the fictional Phoebe Goodheart, intending to give all the presents that readers send her to charity.
After a lonesome old lady who was a grateful reader of the "Dear Phoebe" column bequeaths $1,000,000 to Phoebe Goodheart for comforting her with the columns. Bill claims the money is his because he is "Phoebe Goodheart,"
After the glamorous Italian movie star Constanzia D'Amore begins making personal appearances in L.A., Bill becomes enamored of her and writes a "Dear Phoebe" column in which he has Phoebe say that European women make better wives.
Editor Mr. Fosdick is concerned about copy boy Humphrey's gambling behavior. Fosdick enlists Bill and Mickey in a scheme to break Humphrey of his bad habits before he's totally broke.
Bill's romance with sportswriter Mickey Riley is hampered by a child who is AWOL from military school and Mr. Fosdick's refusal to host an office Christmas party.
Bill runs a "Key to Successful Marriage" contest in the "Dear Phoebe" column, and the winning couple, two ranchers from Montana, provide quite a shock.