Summary
In the opulent yet rigidly stratified world of Palm Beach, Emily Bennett arrives by train, her face inadvertently blackened by locomotive soot. This seemingly minor mishap triggers a cascade of social anxieties for her two aunts, whose sole ambition is to infiltrate the upper echelons of the resort town's elite. Emily, a magnet for misadventure, further disrupts their delicate social maneuvering by spectacularly botching the christening of playboy Jack Trotter's new motor-boat, turning a moment of high society pageantry into a farcical spectacle. Her knack for accidental chaos inadvertently leads her into the path of a group of bootleggers attempting to commandeer Jack's vessels. Mistaking her for a mere nuisance who could expose their illicit operation, they impulsively kidnap her. What the criminals fail to anticipate, however, is that Emily's unique brand of unwitting disruption poses a far greater threat to their plans than her mere presence ever could, proving that some forces of nature are best left undisturbed.
Synopsis
Emily Bennett, arriving in Palm Beach on a train, puts her head out of the window and her face is smudged black from the locomotive's coal smoke. She is mistaken for a black girl and this does oh so embarrass her two aunts who are hoping to join the Palm Beach social set. She later fails to impress playboy Jack Trotter when she bungles the christening of his motor-boat. Bungling right along, she bungles into some bootleggers who are loading liquor onto Jack's boats with intent to steal the boat. They have no wish of anyone knowing their intentions, so they kidnap Emily. As it turns out, the gangsters would have been better off by just leaving Emily where she was.