May Turner, a shy, plain-looking girl of 17 who never dated a boy and whose favorite attire is blue jeans, reluctantly obeys her mother's dictum one evening to "dress-up the works." Transformed by pretty clothes and make-up, she strongly attracts her secret heart-throb, George Meissner, a football star who has been courting her older, more popular sister, Fluff. That same evening, after taking a cold medicine mismade by the local pharmacist, May becomes a female Samson-for how long, nobody knows. Mrs. Turner tries desperately to keep this quiet, but it leaks out. Mr. Turner, who always wanted an athlete in the family, is delighted; Fluff simmers with ill-concealed jealousy; the high school wrestling coach asks May for an assist, and the whole town becomes agog. Then the news is picked up by a wire service, and repercussions spread: May is asked to pose for
Life, break the women's record for the javelin throw, and wrestle an alligator in Key West.
Despite her fame, May is miserable because she and George have split up after a tiff over male vs. female athletes. It seems May will regress from tomboy to freak, but disaster is narrowly averted, largely through Mr. Turner's common sense, and life at the Turner house returns to normal bedlam.