Frank Beardsley (Henry Fonda) is a naval officer, and Helen North (Lucille Ball) is a nurse on the naval base. Frank takes his daughter into the medical clinic. He and Helen hit it off, and he asks her out. At that point, neither of them tells the other how many children they have. They like each other a lot, and finally each admits to having lots of children. They decide to cool their relationship because of the impossible number of children they have between them. However, the attraction is too strong, and so they eventually marry, buy a huge house, and become a blended family with 18 children ranging from older teens to babies. There are squabbles between the two different families of children. The family is very regimented in order to get all the work done. Helen finds out that Frank is yearning to go back to sea, so she tells him to go which leaves her alone with the domestic problems. She also doesn't tell him that she's pregnant with their child knowing he won’t go if he knows