Molly Thatcher (Lee Remick) is a stockbroker languishing in a company run by Chauvinism#Male chauvinism Bullard Bear (Jim Backus). When the company does poorly, he has to fire somebody. As the only female broker, Molly is the obvious choice since dismissing a male broker would make people think the company is in trouble. He assigns her the seemingly impossible task of unloading shares of an obscure company called Universal Widgets, figuring that she will fail, and he will have an excuse to fire her.