Betty Silver, twenty-four, is step-daughter of millionaire-tycoon Benjamin Scobell, the nephew and sole male relative of Mrs Jane Oakley, multi-millionairess miser. Some years ago Betty had met a John Maude when he was at Harvard, and he has been her prince lointain ever since. Benjamin Scobell virtually owns the Mediterranean island of Mervo and he runs it as a gambling property. He discovers that John Maude's late father had been Prince and ruler of Mervo, deposed when the island elected to be a republic. Scobell decides, for business reasons, to bring John Maude in as Prince and - to keep him in the family - to marry him to his step-daughter Betty. Betty goes out to Mervo, meets John Maude again, but thinks he is courting her simply because her step-father has ordered him to. She runs away to New York. Her aunt, Mrs Oakley, likes her, tells her to dry her tears and get a job. As 'Betty Brown' she goes as a typist to Peaceful Moments, a sleepy weekly. Rupert Smit ex-Harvard newspaperman, is deputy editor, but, when the editor is ordered away for three months for health reasons, Smith takes over and peps the magazine up. Rupert Smith is clearly a clone of Psmith: very tall, thin and dark, with a solemn face; immaculately dressed monocle in left eye and calls people 'Comrade'. Helped by good researching, muck-raking and writing by Betty 'Brown', the paper attacks the anonymous owners of the Brosher Street slum tenements in New York. Meanwhile John Maude has quit Mervo, not liking the Scobell methods, and he gets a job at Peaceful Moments through his old friend Rupert Smith. Betty, thinking he is pursuing her, disappears and takes a job as cashier in one of Bat Jarvis's (a nice cat-loving gangster) cafés. It transpires that Benjamin Scobell is owner not only of Peaceful Moments all the time, but of the Brosher Street tenements also. He repents and says he will repair them and run them properly. John Maude, reunited with Betty, wants to marry her. Mrs Oakley gives them enough money for them to buy a farm out west and make the happy ending.

Source: Richard Usborne. Plum Sauce. A P G Wodehouse Companion.