Socialite Millicent Jordan is eagerly preparing for a high-profile dinner party intended to impress an English aristocrat and advance her husband Oliver’s struggling shipping business. However, a series of personal dramas unfold as each invited guest grapples with their own issues. Oliver is stressed about saving his failing business and dealing with an unscrupulous businessman, Dan Packard. Meanwhile, Carlotta Vance, a former star now financially ruined, seeks to sell her stock in Oliver’s company, adding to his woes. Packard's young wife Kitty attempts to mask her lack of social grace and harbors a secretively lascivious affair, exacerbating tensions further.

As preparations progress, personal and professional turmoils cascade through the invited guests' lives. Dr. Wayne Talbot juggles his medical practice while maintaining an extramarital affair, unaware his wife is closing in on the truth. Millicent and Oliver's daughter Paula is embroiled in her own heartache after discovering her fiancé, Ernest DeGraff, is having a romance with another woman—a famed actor nearing ruin named Larry Renault. The varied tensions and intersecting storylines meld as characters, each dealing with personal crises and hidden motives, converge under the pretense of an elegantly planned dinner that quickly becomes anything but serene. The dinner party is set to begin, carrying the weight of tenuous relationships and unspoken truths that threaten to unravel in full view.