Two homeless men move into a mansion while its owners are wintering in the South.
Every winter, Michael J. O'Connor, the second richest man in the world, vacates his 5th Avenue mansion for his winter home in warmer climes. Every winter, Aloysius T. McKeever, a homeless man, moves into the vacated mansion. This particular winter, McKeever meets Jim Bullock, an army veteran who has recently been evicted from his apartment and offers to share the mansion with him. It's not long before the mansion has a few more guests, including two of Jim's army buddies and their wives and children; runaway heiress Trudy Connor; her mother, and even Michael J. O'Connor, himself.—L. Hamre
For the past twenty years, vagabond Aloysius T. McKeever - Mac - has squatted in some of the best homes while the owners have been away, he wearing the owners' clothes and using their supplies, including eating the food in their pantry, just little enough so that the owners would not notice anything missing upon their return. For the past three winters, he has chosen the Manhattan Fifth Avenue mansion of Michael J. O'Connor, the second richest man in the world, his money all self-made in various business ventures. This winter, Mac invites two people in need of shelter to stay with him in the mansion, they who invite a few other needy people. The first invitee is Jim Bullock, a war veteran who was evicted from his last apartment owned by O'Connor, who is tearing down the building to construct a luxury high rise in its place. Jim's own experience and that of colleagues has led to Jim having a grand plan to provide housing for veterans, he having his eye on some government property outside the city that will soon be up for sale. Jim's subsequent invitees into the house are two fellow veterans and their families who could not find housing as many places will not accept children. The second invitee is eighteen year old Trudy Smith, a runaway. In having fallen in love with Jim and in love with what Mac is doing with the house, Trudy does not tell her housemates that while she truly is a runaway, her last name is not really Smith, but O'Connor - the daughter of Michael J. O'Connor - she who ran away from finishing school in her unhappiness and who snuck into the house to get some of her own clothes. She is unhappy because of her broken family, her parents who divorced years ago as Trudy's mother felt Michael was unfaithful, his mistress being his unending quest for more and more wealth at all cost and no matter who he hurt, people like Jim, in the process. Because Trudy wants to marry Jim, she invites two other vagabonds into the house. The first is Mike, who she has invited in the caveat that he not divulge that he is really her father, Michael J. O'Connor, who returned to New York from his annual winter getaway in Virginia to deal with some business. The second is Mary, who ends up being the cook of the group. She is really Mary O'Connor, Trudy's mother and Michael's ex-wife who Trudy called in both to meet Jim and to neutralize Mike's effect in the house. Beyond Mike's anger about what Mac and the others are doing in his house which includes he seeing Jim as a freeloader, further potential fireworks between housemates may occur as Mike is eyeing that same government property as Jim for what is arguably his largest business venture to date.—Huggo
As he does every winter, hobo Aloysius T. McKeever (Victor Moore) moves in to a mansion on New York City's 5th Avenue while its owners are away for the winter and invites all his hobo friends in from the cold. But this Christmas, Mary O'Connor (Ann Harding) comes home unexpectedly after a quarrel with her boyfriend to find her house occupied by jovial street dwellers. To make matters even worse, her father (Charles Ruggles) disguises himself as a hobo to get an invitation to stay in his own home -- and keeps his identity secret in this perennial Christmas favorite about rediscovering family and the joy of being together.
On New York City's Fifth Avenue, the "richest avenue in the world," a tour bus announcer points out the boarded-up townhouse of "industrial wizard" Michael O'Connor, the world's second richest man. As the bus passes, a middle-aged drifter and his dog Sam enter the O'Connor house through a loose board in the fence and a manhole, and spend the night. Meanwhile, O'Connor evicts the tenants of one of his city apartment houses in order to erect an eighty story building. One of his tenants, Jim Bullock, an out-of-work veteran, refuses to leave. He is eventually thrown out, and while sleeping on a park bench, meets the drifter, Aloysious T. McKeever, or "Mac." Mac invites Jim to stay with him at O'Connor's townhouse, which he has occupied for the last three winters while O'Connor resides in Virginia, and Jim assumes that Mac is O'Connor. Currently, O'Connor is preparing to buy Camp Kilson, a deserted army camp outside Manhattan, in order to build a massive air cargo network. He receives word that his daughter Trudy has run away from her finishing school. When Trudy arrives at the townhouse, Jim concludes that she is a thief, but lets her stay. Trudy quickly falls in love with Jim, and is determined to keep her identity a secret so that he won't love her for her money. When the night patrol arrives to check the house, Mac makes everyone hide and finally confesses to Jim and Trudy that he is an interloper. Later, Jim meets two friends from the service, Hank and Whitey, and their wives and children, who are living in a car due to the postwar housing shortage, and invites them to stay at the townhouse, too. With Mac's help, Jim, Whitey and Hank are inspired to design a model to renovate vacant army barracks into housing projects, and decide to bid on Camp Kilson. Soon O'Connor arrives in New York and finds Trudy leaving for her new job at a music shop. Although he orders her back to school, she insists that she has spent her life being lonely and now wants Jim. O'Connor wants to meet Jim and reluctantly agrees to pose as a drifter, after which Trudy and Jim convince Mac to let O'Connor become another "guest" at the mansion. It is not long before O'Connor is fed up with his house guests and threatens to call the police. Trudy sends for her mother, however, who years before reluctantly divorced O'Connor because business was his first priority. Mary and O'Connor rekindle their love for each other, and on Christmas Eve, Mac encourages them to marry, unaware of their true relationship. When Mary finds out that O'Connor outbid Jim on Camp Kilson, and tried to give him a job in Bolivia, to take him away from Trudy, however, she determines to leave him. After Trudy also scolds him, O'Connor lets Jim buy the camp. On New Year's Eve, the house-guests all celebrate the contract, and prepare to leave the townhouse. Although Trudy and Jim and Mary and O'Connor offer Mac a room, he assures them he has a place to stay, O'Connor's house in Virginia, then says goodbye. O'Connor tells Mary that next November, Mac will be coming through the front door.