Christmas Eve for the women in the Fairchild family is upset by the unexpected return of the head of the family, after 15 years in a psychiatric institution. His ex-wife leaves with her fiancé, but his daughter breaks off her own engagement to be with him. The screen debut of Katharine Hepburn—“quite unlike anybody I’d ever seen,” in Cukor’s words. “She was born for the movies.” Cukor himself would prove to be a master at bringing out the magnetic quality that later made Hepburn such a great movie personality