Within a few minutes Lanny has another "brainstorm". Upon hearing about Annabel's new picture, The Maid and the Man, he gets her a job as a maid in an "average American household" to gain experience for the movie. He thinks it will be great publicity, and actually she does, too. That is, until she arrives at the Fletcher home; which turns out not to be so average a household. In this house lives an eccentric older gentleman they call The Major (Thurston Hall), a husband and wife and their love-starved adolescent son, Robert (Lee Van Atta), who falls in love with Annabel at first sight. Luckily, the Fletcher's don't recognize "Mary's" true identity, so all goes well at first, until Mrs. Fletcher (Elisabeth Risdon) tries to get Annabel to wax the floors! It's not too bad though, with Lanny's help she makes it through the first day successfully- but the real action is about to begin.

The Fletcher's have two houseguests who unbeknownst to them are crooks on the run from the cops. They hold Annabel and the Fletcher's hostage in the house. Meanwhile, back at Wonder Pictures, The Maid and the Man has been called off, so they want to cancel the publicity stunt too. Lanny calls Annabel at the Fletcher's to tell her but she tells him she can't leave the house. He knows something's wrong and he finds out what it is when her old mug shot as "June Brayce", from when he had her put in prison, turns up on the front page of the newspaper! Annabel had been seen with one of the criminals and reporters found her mug shot and mistook "Miss Brayce" for a gangster's moll. Well, Lanny's really gotten her into trouble this time. Dangerous criminals are holding Annabel captive in the Fletcher home. He has to find a way to get her out.

Lanny, Howard Webb and three studio writers cook up an elaborate production to get Annabel out of the house. They bring along a director and a hundred male extras dressed as policemen to charge up to the house and scare the criminals into submission. It works fairly well until the actors find themselves being fired at with real bullets! Lanny sneaks inside the house to try and help. Finally, the real cops arrive on the scene. The crooks try to make a run for it, holding Annabel and Lanny as human shields as they try to get away. As Lanny is on the verge of collapse, Annabel twists her captor's arm and hurls him to the floor. As he struggles to get up the cops step in and arrest them. The ordeal is over and headlines all over the world declare Annabel a heroine. She's back on top; it's the greatest publicity she's ever received.