Police officer Charlie Lang is kind and generous. He loves his job and enjoys a strong rapport with the
Queens neighborhood where he lives. His wife Muriel works in a hairdressing salon. Muriel is greedy, selfish, and materialistic; she constantly complains about their situation in life. Waitress Yvonne Biasi, also kind and generous, is newly bankrupt. Her estranged husband Eddie has taken her
credit card and spent $12,000 without her consent. The court holds her responsible for the entire bill; moreover, her boss docks her pay for the time she spent in court. Yvonne hits it off with Charlie while waiting on him at the diner where she works. Charlie, not having enough money for a tip, instead offers Yvonne double the tip tomorrow or half of his prospective lottery winnings. He wins a $4 million share of a $64 million lottery prize the next day. Charlie makes good on his offer to split the prize with Yvonne, despite Muriel's protests. Charlie and Yvonne become instant celebrities, while Muriel becomes a spokesperson for her favorite beauty products. Yvonne buys the diner, and fires her ex-boss. She also sets up a table, with Charlie's name, at which people who cannot afford food can eat for free. Meanwhile, Charlie is wounded while foiling two would-be-robbers at a grocery store. Following a commendation, he takes mandatory leave from the
NYPD. Charlie and Yvonne are invited to a gathering on a chartered boat for the lottery winners and members of high society. They miss the cruise so they bond over dinner. Muriel flirts with the wealthy Jack Gross. Muriel throws Charlie out of their apartment and demands a divorce, ostensibly because she is fed up with his charitable nature. That evening, Yvonne leaves her apartment after her husband Eddie shows up - threatening to stay unless he gets $50,000 from her. Charlie and Yvonne run into each other at the
Plaza Hotel, where they spend the night together. At Muriel's and Charlie's divorce proceedings, she demands all the money that he won for herself. Charlie acquiesces but draws the line when she also demands the half he gave Yvonne. The case goes to court, which rules in Muriel's favor. Yvonne, feeling guilty at having bankrupted Charlie and wrecked his marriage, pushes him away. But he is in love with her, insisting that he does not care about the money and is far better off without Muriel. Yvonne reciprocates. While ruminating about their future at Yvonne's closed diner, the new couple provide a homeless man with soup at the Charlie Lang Table. The man is actually undercover photojournalist Angel Dupree, the film's narrator; he takes photos of Yvonne and Charlie for the next day's headline in the
New York Post, wherein Angel praises their willingness to support him, even in their own "darkest hour." As Charlie and Yvonne are preparing to move out of
NYC, they receive mail from hundreds of New Yorkers who read Angel's exposé. The mail consists of encouraging letters, along with "tips for the cop and the waitress" totaling about $600,000, which pays the couple's debts. Right after Muriel becomes "Mrs. Jack Gross," he turns out to be a con artist who flees the country once he steals all of her money. Broke, she moves back in with her mother in the
Bronx, and returns to her old job as a manicurist. Yvonne divorces Eddie, who never gets the $50,000. Charlie returns to the police force, while Yvonne reclaims the diner. They get married and, for their honeymoon, enjoy a hot-air balloon-ride over
Central Park. ==Cast==