Manhattan lawyer Louden Trott (Griffin Dunne) is about to marry his tycoon boss Simon Worthington's (John McMartin's) spoiled-rotten daughter Wendy (Haviland Morris), albeit with a crushing prenuptial. Simon, however, makes him interrupt the preparations to make sure in person that nobody Nikki Finn (Madonna), just released from a New York jail, takes the bus to meet her Philadelphia parole officer.
Picking up a cat (actually a rare mountain lion) for even richer Montgomery Bell (Sir John Mills) proves to be bad enough, but Nikki takes the cake when it comes to provoking, manipulating, and surprising. Furthermore, they are tailed by a couple of criminal goons and a bickering pair of police detectives who are after the key to evidence which Nikki claims proves she was framed by corrupt Worthington.