A doctor's typist Shirley Brown lives vicariously through the romance novels written by Philip Smith. When the author comes to live at her boardinghouse, her admiration is fostered by sympathy upon realizing that her idol is losing his eyesight and that it can only be saved by a specialist in Italy. Sacrificing herself to help Philip, Molly makes him believe that she is an old maid who has been waiting forty years to find a husband, and she induces him to marry her in return for $5,000, half the legacy she is to receive on her wedding day.