Dick Richmond (William Holden, Sunset Boulevard) is a sharp bookmaker whose unproductive real estate office is a cover for his gambling operation. Unaware of his real line of work, eager but incompetent Ellen Grant (Lucille Ball, TV's 'I Love Lucy') signs on as Dick's secretary and, anxious to make a name for herself - and to help family and friends - presses him into a building project to ease the post-war housing shortage. Dick siphons the cash from unsuspecting homebuyers to pay his debts to a big-time syndicate, leaving his ditzy secretary charged with embezzlement. When the lovely head of the syndicate, Peggy Donato (Janis Carter, Night Editor), offers to tear up his marker in exchange for romance, Dick must choose between the easy, grifting lifestyle or saving his secretary's hide!