"Portly Sheridan Whiteside, critic, lecturer, wit, radio orator, intimate friend of the great and near great, met his Waterloo in the shape of a small piece of ice on the doorstep of Mr. and Mrs. Ernest W. Stanley, of Mesalia, Ohio, while trekking across the country on his annual lecture tours. Result: the idol of the air waves rests until further notice in the home of the surprised Mr. and Mrs, Stanley. Possibility: Christmas may be postponed this year.”

So runs the lead article in the Christmas 1939 issue of Time magazine. Whiteside turns the Stanley household upside down, forcing everyone in town to cater to his egotistical demands. Meanwhile, his beloved secretary has given her notice after falling in love with a local reporter, and Whiteside must engage every weapon in his considerable arsenal of guile and manipulation to keep her in his employ—including blackmail, deceit, and the intervention of the fading sexpot actress Lorraine Sheldon and the elegant British wit of playwright Beverly Carlton. A three-ring circus of machinations and celebrity appearances ensues.