When stevedore-turned-mayor Steve Fisk (Clark Gable) arrives at San Francisco's national mayors convention, he naturally mistakes Clarissa Standish (Loretta Young) for his date, a shapely bubble dancer. Informed she's actually the no-nonsense mayor of Wenonah, Maine, he invites her to dine at a rowdy nightclub, which lands them both in the clink. So when their arrests make the morning papers and Clarissa finds herself falling for Steve, she's forced to choose between love and duty when the scandal threatens both of their careers.