A booksellers' convention lures Agatha Deming, author of a lurid best-selling novel, Wilma Klein, a highly regarded editor, and Nick Braithwaite, a harsh book critic. Agatha and Nick meet by accident, hiding their true identities from each other. Later, Nick and Agatha get drunk and spend the night together. When they discover each other's identities, Nick calls her book trash, and Agatha storms out. They appear on the Dick Cavett show that evening, and Dick Cavett observes as love wins out, despite Nick and Agatha's difference of opinion. Frances and Carl Bernard reunite with their daughter, Jenny. The Bernards' old friend Peter is Jenny's godfather. Jenny secretly resents her domineering mother's control of her life and wants to be an artist, but her mother has decided that Jenny will go to Oxford to study chemistry. When Jenny fails to get into Oxford and finds her boyfriend Dan with another girl, she attempts suicide. Peter rushes Jenny to the hospital and later arranges a reconcil