Family Honeymoon 1948

Katie Armstrong Claudette Colbert is a young widow and mother to three children — Charlie Jimmy Hunt, Abner Peter Miles, and Zoe Gigi Perreau. She is also engaged to Grant Jordan Fred MacMurray, a botany professor at the university who is trying to secure funds for a new botany research building. To win support, he hopes to win over the campus’s influential chancellor, Chancellor Fenster Paul Harvey.

Grant’s past involvement with the chancellor’s daughter, Minna Fenster Rita Johnson, becomes a complication when Minna crashes his bachelor party and later nearly sabotages the engagement party. Katie hears about Minna’s visit and learns that Minna seems determined to undermine the couple, while Grant must keep things smooth with the chancellor.

With wedding plans underway, Katie’s sister, Aunt Jo Lillian Bronson, agrees to help but injures herself in a domestic accident, forcing the couple to bring the children along on their honeymoon. Abner, Charlie, and Zoe slip away at Porterville and end up hitching a ride with a traveling salesman, ultimately finding refuge with a kindly local farmer, Mr. Webb Irving Bacon, before the family is reunited and continues on to Junction City, then toward the Grand Canyon.

At the Grand Canyon, Minna and the chancellor are on vacation as well. Minna pushes Grant to reveal his sketches for a new building to her father, while Katie and the children enjoy a horseback excursion. Katie learns of the chancellor’s presence and returns to the lodge, where Minna invites her to dinner with Grant. While Katie is away, Minna slips in to see Grant, sparking a quarrel. Grant leaves in a taxi, and Minna watches with a knowing smile.

Back at the lodge, Jo organizes a welcome-home party for the couple, but Katie feels embarrassed returning to the gathering solo, with Minna and the chancellor nearby. The dynamic shifts when Grant and the children show up, and the couple, reassured by their reunion, spend their first night together, closing the trip with a renewed sense of partnership and a promise of married life ahead.