Powerful United States House of Representatives Agatha Reed (Joan Crawford) returns to her alma mater to receive an honorary degree. Unbeknownst to the college's board of trustees, Agatha was Expulsion (academia) from the school years earlier for participating in an all-night date with a young professor, Dr. James Merrill (Robert Young (actor)), who is now the university president. The romantic fires are rekindled when the two meet. Matt Cole (Frank Lovejoy), a photographer from Life Magazine who loves Agatha, believes her feeling for Merrill is simply an unresolved holdover from her girlhood and follows her to the school.