In 1885, New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett assigns novice reporter Horace Miller to find the woman who served as Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi's model for the Statue of Liberty.

She faces deportation until a sympathetic Pulitzer comes to her rescue, paving the way for her to plan a future with Horace, who jilts his American girlfriend Maisie Doll in favor of the French beauty.

During World War II, Robert Sherwood was deeply moved when he saw what the Statue of Liberty meant to American GIs who were being shipped overseas, and he wanted to write a story about this symbol of freedom.

While crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary with 15,000 recruits, the playwright had been "deeply moved" and "greatly impressed by the emotion that sight of the statue generated among these soldiers."

Directed by Moss Hart and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, the cast included Eddie Albert as Horace Miller, Allyn McLerie as Monique DuPont, Mary McCarty as Maisie Doll, Philip Bourneuf as Joseph Pulitzer, and Charles Dingle as James Gordon Bennett, with Maria Karnilova and Tommy Rall among the supporting players.