Tess McGill is a working-class girl from Staten Island with a bachelor's degree in Business from evening classes. She works as a stockbroker's secretary in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank. Tess aspires to reach an executive position. Tricked by her boss into a date with his lascivious, cocaine-snorting colleague, she gets into trouble by using the office ticker to insult him and is reassigned as secretary to a new executive, Katharine Parker. Seemingly supportive, Katharine encourages Tess to share ideas. Tess suggests that a client, Trask Industries, should invest in radio to gain a foothold in media. Katharine listens to the idea and says she will pass it through some people. Later, she says the idea was not well received. When Katharine breaks her leg skiing in Europe, she asks Tess to house-sit. While at Katharine's place, Tess discovers some meeting notes where Katharine plans to pass off the merger idea as her own. At home, Tess finds her boyfriend Mick Dugan in bed with another woman. Disillusioned, she returns to Katharine's apartment and begins her transformation.