Nails O'Reilly Duquesne is a newly wealthy young widow. Loud and brassy, Nails is a former manicurist. She organizes a benefit for her favorite cause, the rehabilitation of ex-convicts. Together with her sidekick (an "ex-con" himself), Policy Pinkle, and her "square" boyfriend, lawyer Bob Hale, she embarks on a nationwide search for Bob's old girlfriend, which is really the reason for the enterprise. The girlfriend, 18 years earlier, had sat upon a hot waffle iron and so had a unique "imprint". However, the national lottery that Nails starts gets the attention of the Finance Committee, and they wind up in Washington DC in an even more complicated situation. The Supreme Court declares the lottery unconstitutional, because it would benefit the people.
HOT SPOT
Peace Corps volunteer, hygiene teacher "Sally Hopwinder" (Judy Holliday), is stationed in a fictional nation, "D'hum" with decent living conditions. She concocts a plan to obtain U.S. aid for D'hum by convincing the Pentagon that Russia is about to invade it.
TOO HOT FOR MANEUVERS
A discharged colonel takes over his family's military academy just as a scandal arises when several upperclassmen are seen coming from the home of a countess who performed a notorious dance at the World's Fair.