Late 1940s at Ford Theater in Baltimore. Fred Graham and Lilli Vanessi, once married, now divorced, are nevertheless co-staring in a tryout of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew in Baltimore. Although they've been apart for a year, Lilli still seethes when she sees Fred paying attention to Lois Lane, the nightclub girl he's cast as Bianca. Lois, though, has a boyfriend in the cast, Bill, who owes gangsters $10,000, which they've come to collect--but Bill signed the IOU in Fred's name. In Lilli's dressing room, Fred overhears her phone conversation with wealthy fiance Harrison Howell. Still, the two are soon reminiscing about the days when they were struggling actors in love, until the flowers Fred had ordered for Lois are mistakenly delivered to Lilli--along with the accompanying love note. He tries to explain the error, but Lilli, without reading it, says she'll keep the note next to her heart and deposits it in her bodice before taking stage in the scene where Petruchio in the show-within-a-show meets Katharine. Then Lilli reads the note, and the shrew versus suitor scene takes on additional meaning as she kicks, slaps, and bites Fred. He responds by taking her over his knee and spanking her. Afterward, Lilli immediately calls Howell to say she's leaving the show and will marry him--so Fred tells the gangsters that he'll have to close the show, which will impede his paying off the IOU. The gangsters suggest to Lilli--at gunpoint--that she stay. In fact, they become actors in the play to ensure that she will not escape. Howell shows up (where he's recognized by Lois, who was once romanced by him, to the consternation of Bill) but infuriates Lilli when he doesn't believe that the two thugs in colorful costumes really prevent her from leaving. But the thugs find the debt is canceled when their boss has been deposed and disposed of. Lilli is now free to go, but she decides not to--realizing that she and Fred are two of a kind. Synopsis (c) Peter Filichia