Tom Bates (Ronald Reagan) has returned to Jordan, Ohio, after 18 years, rekindling the gossip that he fathered an illegitimate baby before he left. Mary Hagen (Shirley Temple), the now-grown subject of those rumors, soon finds herself an unwitting target for the town's malicious whispers and lies. So when her mother dies without explaining her past, a tormented Mary turns to Tom for the truth about a scandal that ruined her life before it ever began. Said to be Temple's favorite adult movie, That Hagen Girl also features 20-year-old Lois Maxwell as the former child star's on-screen teacher and friend. Winner of the 1948 Golden Globe as New Star of the Year, Maxwell would achieve screen immortality as Miss Moneypenny, a role she played in the first 14 James Bond films, from Dr. No (1962) to a View to a Kill (1985).