He takes Shirley up in the plane to explain that her mother has joined her father in heaven. Adele then breaks the news of Mary's death to Loop, who thanks her for her concern. Adele earlier had broken her engagement to marry Loop, and when they meet, he snubs her. Mary rushes to take a cake to her, and she is hit and killed by a car. Smythe's cousin from New York, arrives as the aviators give Shirley a party in a taxiing plane. Uncle Ned likes Shirley but despises the Smythe's daughter Joy, who is a spoiled brat. The Smythes would like to fire Mary, but they cannot because they must remain in the good grace of their Uncle Ned Smith, a crabby, wheelchair-bound old man who made a fortune in sewers. She spends much time with aviator Loop Merritt, her father's best friend and her godfather, who lives nearby at the Glendale Airport.
Five-year-old Shirley Blake, whose father, an aviator, died in a crack up, lives with her mother Mary, a maid in the home of the snooty nouveau-riche Smythe family.
