Plot
In Los Angeles, songwriter Steve Elliot prepares to marry Caroline Brooks, who has pledged to give up her job as a college swimming instructor. Likewise, Steve plans to quit his songwriting career, even though New York producer George Adams has already hired him to write new songs for a water ballet show.
When George overhears Steve discussing his "retirement" with Caroline, he vows to prevent it and enlists Maria Dorango, an aspiring actress posing as a Latin-American singer, to help him. Moments after a justice of the peace pronounces the redheaded Steve and Caroline man and wife, Maria rushes in, claiming that Steve is her husband and the father of her three redheaded children, who are then paraded in. Although Steve pleads his innocence, Caroline storms off in a rage and returns to her teaching post at Victoria College in New Jersey. A determined Steve and his friend, Carlos Ramírez, follow her there but are denied entrance to the all-female school.
Later in a New York nightclub, Steve meets drunken lawyer Chester Klazenfrantz and learns that Klazenfrantz has been hired to change the charter of Victoria College, which has never officially designated itself as all-female. Armed with this information, Steve returns to Victoria and insists on applying for admission. Unaware of Caroline's relationship to Steve, Dean Clinton suggests to the faculty that he be admitted for a two-week probationary period, during which they would give him 100 demerits, thus qualifying him for expulsion before Parents Day.
Once enrolled and housed in a dusty basement storage space away from the female students, Steve tries to speak with Caroline, but she refuses to listen to his explanations and tells him she is seeking an annulment. Later in music class, stodgy Professor Hendricks attempts to discredit Steve, whose presence on campus has created a furor among the students, by ordering him to write his own version of the Scottish ballad, Loch Lomond, and teach class the next day. With help from several talented students, Carlos, the music teaching assistant, and Steve's friend Harry James and his orchestra, Steve meets Hendricks' challenge and is awarded an A.
That night, Steve visits Caroline at her house but is turned out after Willis Evans, a conservative botany professor who is in love with Caroline, arrives. When Caroline realizes that Steve is hiding in her closet, spying on her, she commands Willis' Great Dane, Duke, to guard the closet door while reminding Steve that unless he is back in his room in five minutes, he will be expelled for breaking curfew. With only seconds to spare, Steve manages to trick the dog long enough to escape back to his dingy basement room. Steve is then visited by George, who threatens to vilify him in the press unless he finishes his songs. When Steve swears deadly revenge on the person who hired Maria, however, George backs down and offers to help Steve do his homework.
Concerned about the approaching Parents Day, Dean Clinton commands Steve's professors, who have penalized him with only fifty-five demerits, to bear down on him. To that end, Madame Zarka, Steve's ruthlessly strict eurythmics instructor, forces him to wear a tutu and dance with the female students. Steve is embarrassed and unwilling to humiliate himself, but when Zarka starts giving out demerits, he proceeds to do a ballet number. A now desperate Dean Clinton asks Caroline to go out with Steve and ensure that he arrives back at Victoria after the curfew. Caroline agrees, but during the evening, Steve convinces her of his innocence, and as they drive back to school, they make plans to return to California together. Unbeknownst to them, Maria is on campus looking to expose George, who has been trying to get rid of her, to Steve. At the same time, a campus sorority descends on Steve's room hoping to initiate him, and Jean Allenwood and a student (Janis) show up with news that her parents (mother played by Margaret Dumont) and Dean Clinton are on their way over to inspect the room to confirm if the rumors of a male student being on campus are true. In a nod to the Marx Brothers, as Steve desperately hides all the women in two closets and keeps Caroline from discovering Maria, George unexpectedly arrives. Although Steve succeeds in hiding George and himself and fooling Dean Clinton and the Allenwoods, Maria soon makes her presence known to Caroline, who once again leaves in a fury, with everyone else exiting in a comical parade.
Later, Steve promises to write songs for George's water ballet show on condition that he make Caroline the star. George agrees, and after Maria is finally able to tell Caroline the truth, Caroline happily reunites with Steve. When the water ballet is over, Steve chases George into the water for vengeance, but when Steve remembers that he doesn't know how to swim, Caroline rescues him and gives him a kiss.
