Marjorie Duke has waited her whole life for the whirlwind of her debut: shopping in Paris, attending fashionable balls, and meeting the Who's Who of Palm Beach before finally falling in love. Chaperoned by her ailing mother, Marjorie comes to the jarring realization that her mother, to whom she has looked for guidance her whole life, has no better sense of the social landscape and pitfalls of coming out than Marjorie herself.

Relying on her natural charm and beauty, Marjorie soon snares the attention of Allie, an eligible handsome British nobleman who squires her to the beach by day and to balls by night. Through the whirlwind of courtship, she has only the keen-eyed newspaperman Goose to confide in. Marjorie is designing her destiny, but she has yet to determine the shape of love and happiness.