Because of her infamy in the 1960s as a liberated woman, Helen Gurley Brown (Natalie Wood) must deal with the sleazy tabloid editor of Stop Magazine, owned by The Chief (Edward Everett Horton). Bob Weston (Tony Curtis) wants to do an expose on the modern woman and pretends to need Dr. Brown’s counsel. Weston pretends to be Frank Luther Broderick (Henry Fonda), a man with a problem wife named Sylvia Broderick (Lauren Bacall), a former model. Weston makes himself pathetic, but develops an interest in Helen. Since colleague and psychiatrist Dr. Rudy DeMeyer (Mel Ferrer) has a romantic interest in Helen, this leads to confusion and problems as Helen advocates affairs with married men only.