 White-collar working stiff but upwardly mobile Val McNulty meets, quickly falls in love and marries socialite Maggie Carleton, who has no money of her own. Thus, they live in a modest apartment on Val s wages. At the same time, Val s widowed mother, Ellen, without funds of her own when the bank forecloses on her family business, a hamburger stand, decides to move from New Jersey to Ohio to live with Val. Her plans change when she finds out about Val s upcoming nuptials as she doesn t want to upset Val s life with his new wife. She also doesn t want to meet Maggie until she feels she has enough money at least to make herself "presentable" to someone of Maggie s social class. Once Ellen feels that is the case, she goes over to Val and Maggie s where a case of mistaken identity ensues when Maggie assumes Ellen is the cook hired for a dinner party happening that evening. Wanting to help her new daughter-in-law, Ellen doesn t correct Maggie. Although Val eventually finds out who the cook is, Ellen convinces him - blackmails really - that she can be of better assistance to Maggie as Ellen the live-in full-time household cook, than Mrs. McNulty her new mother-in-law. Ellen ends up being more than just a cook as as hired help, she is privy to many of the thoughts and schemes of those who don t want to see Val and Maggie s marriage succeed, namely Maggie s ex-boyfriend/Val s boss George Kalenger Jr., Val s ex-girlfriend Betsy Donaldson, and Maggie s snobbish mother Fran Carleton. Ultimately, Maggie finds out about the deception and decides to leave Val because she feels he didn t trust her to love someone of working class and he is only hiding his mother s identity to further his career. It isn t until Val risks a business deal by revealing Ellen s true identity to all that Maggie returns to her loving husband. Along the way, Ellen finds some personal happiness of her own.