She finds a similarly drunken Mac and the two have sexually charged conversation before kissing and spending the night together. The night before the wedding, Tracy uncharacteristically gets drunk (it is also revealed that Dexter has given up drinking).
To add insult to injury, Tracy’s dad returns home for the wedding and claims his affairs are a result of Tracy’s cold-hearted demeanor towards him (a claim that her mother apparently agrees with). Tracy claims she just wants to be loved as a human being. Tracy is more distressed when George woos her by referring to her as a goddess he wishes to worship. Dexter mockingly calls her a goddess who demands worship, which upsets Tracy greatly. Meanwhile, Dexter notes that Tracy is self-absorbed and obsessed with maintaining her ego, letting her actual personality shine through only once during their marriage. Dexter is revealed to have been a brutal drunk during their marriage, intimating that he may have been physically abusive to Tracy. Meanwhile, Tracy and Dexter continue to argue with each other. Elizabeth is casually dating Mac, and watches unhappily as he and Tracydevelop a mutual attract. Mac also grows to respect Tracy’s intelligence and independent spirit. Tracy reads some of Mac’s works and is enamored with his passion. Dexter pulls his trump card and threatens to expose an affair Tracy’s father is having if she kicks the newsmen out. He claims that Mac and Elizabeth are close friends, though Tracy and family soon determine that they are undercover newsmen. Dexter is welcomed into the house by Tracy’s mother and Dinah. He has contempt of both his job and of socialites like Tracy, all of whom he considers vapid. Mac is a short-story novelist using this job to pay the bills (Elizabeth is a painter, also making a living in her job).
The editor assigns Macaulay “Mac” Connor (Jimmy Stewart) and Elizabeth Imbrie (Ruth Hussey) to the job. Knowing Tracy abhors the press, he contacts the local paper and promises he can sneak a writer and photographer into the house for the weekend and the wedding. Hearing of Tracy’s impending nuptials, Dexter returns to town. Tracy’s mother, as well as her younger sister Dinah (Virginia Weidler), prefer the debonair Dexter to the nice, but bland, George. In the present, Tracy is set to be remarried to a rising politician named George Kittredge (John Howard). Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) go through a public and messy divorce. Two years earlier, wealthy Philadelphia socialites Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn) and C.K.
This movie was remade as High Society, a musical version. Tracy (Katherine Hepburn) marries Dex (Cary Grant) again.