Fran is scheduled to cover a high-society function for her newspaper, and has bought a fancy (and expensive) dress for the occasion. Mama agrees to iron it out. The dress survives Mama taking a phone call and placing the iron down, but it doesn't survive Mama slamming the iron onto it during an argument with Ellen. Mama and Ellen band together to buy another dress which looks the same on the rack, but when Fran comes downstairs the dress is "gathered" in all the wrong places. Fran puts two and two together and accuses Mama of deliberately ruining her dress out of jealousy. That part isn't true, but the argument escalates when Fran correctly accuses Mama of running off to get married and leaving Fran to "get stuck taking care of that old witch" (their own mother). Finally, Fran and Mama patch things up and each learns from their experience.
—Peter Harris