when printer john r. hodges (monty woolley) is forced to retire at age 65 because of a company policy, he decides to do something about it. dyeing his hair black, he poses as harold p. cleveland, the president of his former employer's parent company, and goes on an inspection tour of his old workplace, with the firm's nervous, mystified executives in tow. while walking around the plant, hodges runs into joe elliott (david wayne), the boyfriend of his granddaughter alice (jean peters), and winks at him to let him in on the joke. afterward, hodges complains about the lack of experienced, older employees, causing company president louis mckinley (albert dekker) to promise to rescind the retirement policy and rehire all those affected by it within the past year.