When 39-year-old newspaper man Max Wharton (Alexander Knox) suddenly decides to leave his job as chief editor for the New York Bulletin and follow his patriotic calling to enlist in the army, newspaper owner Robert Drexel Gow (Charles Coburn) is beside himself. Max's novelist wife, Paula (Irene Dunne), is in Hollywood adapting a screenplay, but skips town and heads to a Florida military base to support Max during basic training. Together they adjust to the sporadic absurdities of military life.