At first Cornelia is furious, but when she hears how unhappy Pam is, she decides to stay and teach her how to enjoy her money. Jim conveys her to the Wheelwright mansion, where Cornelia is preparing to return to Europe. Pam is surprised to learn that her money has come between her and her friends, and when the Internal Revenue Service claims a large amount in taxes, she demands that Jim reveal the name of her benefactor. She excitedly plans to go with him, but Peter tells her that they will not be happy together until he is successful. When a tipsy Pam returns home, she learns that Peter has taken a job with a band and is leaving town. Later that evening, after Peter and Pam quarrel because she wants him to quit his job, Jim takes Pam out for a night on the town. Peter's sullen attitude confirms Cornelia's feelings that he is not good enough for Pam, and she encourages Jim to court her. To Pam's surprise, Peter is not very happy about her windfall.
She then goes on a spending spree, buying presents for everyone and a piano for Peter. After several more futile efforts to deliver the money, Jim finally succeeds, and the stunned Pam marches straight to the bank in order to see the money first hand. The following day, Jim, acting on Cornelia's behalf, tries to present Pam with a cashier's check for a million dollars, but Pam assumes that he is merely trying to flirt with her and does her best to avoid him. Pam, a salesgirl at Lacey's Department Store, is a vivacious young woman, and she and Cornelia take an immediate liking to each other. Galloway, the landlady and Peter Rowan, an aspiring composer, who is also Pam's boyfriend. Patterson, who wants a job in a laboratory Josie La Rue, an exotic dancer young Alvie Grayson and his mother Mrs. In order to learn what kind of woman Pam is, Cornelia, using the name Miss White, takes a room in Pam's boardinghouse. When wealthy, aging Cornelia Wheelwright learns from young lawyer James Amory that her father defrauded his former partner, Fortune McAllister, of $700,000, she leaves her Swiss home and returns to the United States, determined to right her father's wrong by giving one million dollars to Pamela McAllister, Fortune's sole living descendant.