Told mostly in flashbacks, the film tells the story of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman, one of the greatest and probably most famous courtesans of the twentieth century. While not showing her childhood, first marriage to Winston Churchill's son, or most of her affairs, we do get to see her affair and eventual marriage to Broadway producer Leland Hayward, and then her marriage to politician Averell Harriman, with whom she had an affair while both were married to others in World War II. We also see her as ambassador to France during her last years, and her death in 1997. While some (mostly her lovers) adored her, others (mostly her son and her husbands' children) hated her.

A young mother, Mildred, doesn't know that her husband Walter is cheating on her. One night she attends a party with a friend of her husband's, and the man gets drunk and begins groping her when they get home. Her husband sees this and uses it as an excuse to sue his wife for divorce. In the ensuing trial he wins, due to fraudulent evidence, and gets custody of the child. Complications ensue.

Mildred Harker loses custody of her child in a messy divorce settlement. Leaving her hometown in disgrace, Mildred heads to New York, where after a crash course in the school of hard knocks she joins the chorus of a Ziegfeld-like musical revue. Now a full-fledged gold-digger, she enjoys the favors of backstage johnnies and elderly sugar daddies, but finally finds true love in the form of Park Avenue socialite Ted Willing.

Maxine is a thriving maneater that lives a lavish life based on the gifts and material things her string of wealthy men gift to her. When she finds her next sugar daddy, she encounters a big problem; his wife.

Michelle De Winter lives the good life, wining and dining with only the richest men who are fortunate to cross her path. Her daughter Yvette, whom Michelle insists on introducing as her 'niece', is a fashion model. She is saving herself for the right man, despite the fact that she is part of the free love generation and lives with a group of promiscuous creative types. While Michelle is searching for a new millionaire playboy, Yvette falls for the handsome Peter Von Hallstein. She asks the fatherly Dr. Fink to help her come up with a scheme to get Peter to propose to he

Jack and Jerry are doing okay between profession baseball and Vaudeville. That is, until love and gold-diggers get in the way.

Chris, a former tennis pro, takes a job as an instructor and befriends his wealthy young student, Tom. After being introduced to his family, Chris is soon engaged to Tom's sister, Chloe. Despite the professional and financial advantages that this relationship affords him, Chris becomes obsessed with Tom's fiancee, American actress Nola.

Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.

Fed up with her small-town marriage, a woman goes after the big time and gets mixed up with the mob.

Dick Wallace wants to marry a minister's grand-daughter but his father, who wants him to get work on his company's business, is opposed. She takes a job with the company to prove she's okay.

A business woman who creates the perfect marriage proposals for wealthy men, becomes the target of a crazy client's obsession when she shows him compassion after his girlfriend publicly rejects him.

A golddigging femme fatale leaves a trail of men behind her, rich and poor, alive and dead.