Kind-hearted pickpocket Ogden Spencer Trulow III, whose grandfather founded the New York Security and Trust Bank, repeatedly steals from the bank during unconscious lapses that begin with a twitching ear, but always dutifully returns what he has stolen. Psychoanalyst Pavel Sorasky diagnoses him as a kleptomaniac and tells him that, as he has only been stealing since his fiancée left him, finding a girl friend is his only cure. Soon Ogden bumps into a strange woman on the street; his ear twitches uncontrollably and he steals her compact, which contains the combination to a safe. Later, the woman holds him up at gunpoint in his apartment and demands the compact, but is interrupted by police detective Callahan, who has been tailing her. The woman's name is Sally Martin, and when she pretends to be married to Ogden in order to avoid Callahan, Ogden decides that she is the woman who will cure him. Tired of always having to return what Odgen steals, his valet, Willie Shelley, rips out a newspaper picture of the priceless Romanoff necklace, which will be displayed the upcoming weekend by Henry Carteret during a party at his Long Island home. Sally sees the picture and assumes Ogden aims to steal the necklace. She has been ordered by her boss, Phillips, to steal the necklace during the party by posing as the Carteret maid. After numerous unsuccessful attempts by Phillips' henchmen, Victor and Slash, to kidnap and kill Ogden to keep him from interfering, the pickpocket gets himself into the party in order to keep Sally from stealing the jewels by stealing them himself. Sally, meanwhile, confesses that she has never stolen anything in her life, but is being forced to steal by Phillips, who is holding evidence against her. At the party, Ogden performs a magic trick in which he switches Sally's imitation Romanoff necklace with the real one and then smashes Sally's, causing her to have him thrown out of the party. When Ogden is held up by Slash, however, Sally helps him escape, then knocks him out for his own good. Carteret, it turns out, hired Phillips to steal the necklace for insurance fraud. After the party guests have left, Sally occupies the insurance detectives who have come to guard the necklace so that Phillips can steal it. Willie and Ogden enter the house first, however, and when Victor and Slash unlock the safe, Ogden grabs the safe jewel box in the dark. Sally tells him to get rid of it because she loves him, and he returns it to Carteret. Callahan arrests Carteret but allows the lovers to go, stating that there is nothing wrong with either of them that a marriage ceremony will not cure. They kiss, and Sally's ear twitches.
