Plot

Ellen McNulty loses her hamburger joint and goes to see her son, who marries a socialite at the same time. Due to her modest background and a case of mistaken identity, Ellen poses as the newlyweds' cook.

Ellen McNulty leaves her New Jersey hamburger stand and heads west to pay a surprise visit to her son and his new bride. When Ellen arrives, her daughter-in-law mistakes her for the maid she has hired for a big party they are throwing. Rather than cause any embarrassment, Ellen goes along with the charade, which leads to many complications.—Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>

White-collar working stiff but upwardly mobile Val McNulty meets, quickly falls in love and marries socialite Maggie Carleton, who has no money of her own. Thus, they live in a modest apartment on Val's wages. At the same time, Val's widowed mother, Ellen, without funds of her own when the bank forecloses on her family business, a hamburger stand, decides to move from New Jersey to Ohio to live with Val. Her plans change when she finds out about Val's upcoming nuptials as she doesn't want to upset Val's life with his new wife. She also doesn't want to meet Maggie until she feels she has enough money at least to make herself "presentable" to someone of Maggie's social class. Once Ellen feels that is the case, she goes over to Val and Maggie's where a case of mistaken identity ensues when Maggie assumes Ellen is the cook hired for a dinner party happening that evening. Wanting to help her new daughter-in-law, Ellen doesn't correct Maggie. Although Val eventually finds out who the cook is, Ellen convinces him - blackmails really - that she can be of better assistance to Maggie as Ellen the live-in full-time household cook, than Mrs. McNulty her new mother-in-law. Ellen ends up being more than just a cook as as hired help, she is privy to many of the thoughts and schemes of those who don't want to see Val and Maggie's marriage succeed, namely Maggie's ex-boyfriend/Val's boss George Kalenger Jr., Val's ex-girlfriend Betsy Donaldson, and Maggie's snobbish mother Fran Carleton. Ultimately, Maggie finds out about the deception and decides to leave Val because she feels he didn't trust her to love someone of working class and he is only hiding his mother's identity to further his career. It isn't until Val risks a business deal by revealing Ellen's true identity to all that Maggie returns to her loving husband. Along the way, Ellen finds some personal happiness of her own.—Huggo

Thelma Ritter steals the show as Ellen McNulty, down-to-earth widow evicted from her late husband's Jersey City, N.J. hamburger stand. Ellen has one son, Val, for whom she willingly slaved to help pay fees for a college degree from NYU. A low echelon but ambitious engineer with the prestigious Kalinger Industries, Val works overtime to mould himself into the model junior executive worthy of dynamic owner, George Kalinger, Sr. Unlike alcoholic son, playboy, George "Junior" Kalinger, Val does not have a rich father to pave his way. One morning, as Jr. "sleeps it off," Val rescues the elegant Maggie Carleton, exquisite daughter of a (late) father who was a distinguished U.S. Ambassador... and a mother who is the mother of all mothers. Val and Maggie learn you cannot choose your relatives but you can choose how to live... and love. And, if stray dogs happen to like you, the sky may be the limit!—LA-Lawyer

When Ellen McNulty's hamburger stand is on the skids she hitchhikes to her son. To her surprise he is about to be married to a beautiful socialite. Being of a different breed she is afraid she'll humiliate him, so she poses as the maid. To make matters more complicated the new bride's snobby mother in law moves in, old relations of both the bride and groom seek to destroy the marriage, and troubling finances don't help either. Can these two newly weds make it against such odds?