Max Herschel, the married, wealthy, vulgar, egotistical, middle-aged head of a corporate empire, is satisfied with the somewhat casual love/hate relationship he shares with his mistress and protegee, television producer "Bones" Burton, just as it is, but she wants a more serious commitment.

The young woman attempts to extricate herself from the affair—or perhaps force her lover into taking the next, more permanent step—by dating a younger man, off-off-Broadway playwright Steven Routledge.

The two engage in an escalating battle of wits, with Max discovering that money cannot resolve everything when he is outsmarted by business rival Seymour Berger and his grandson Mike.

Interiors of the Warner Bros. release were filmed at the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York, with Manhattan exteriors (and the scene inside Bergdorf Goodman) shot on location.

[He] is too much of a pussycat to convey the hero's toughness, but he delivers Allen's best sallies with crackling speed...Though MacGraw is no comedian, she is animated and playful for the first time in memory.