- The very blond and very rich Melanie Daniels is out walking in San Francisco.
- Someone whistles at her (that's the first sign that sex and birds go together), and she looks up at a bunch of gulls flying overhead.
- Foreshadowing alert.
- She goes into a pet store. See the portly guy walking the dogs? That's Hitchcock in one of his cameos.
- The store is full of caged birds. More foreshadowing.
- Melanie goes up to the clerk and asks what all of the gulls are doing; the clerk says it's probably a storm at sea.
- Melanie has ordered a mynah bird from the shop, and the clerk tells her it hasn't arrived yet. She tries to get Melanie to stay and wait for it, but Melanie is impatient and busy and snooty and says no way.
- Mitch Brenner enters the shop, looking all suited and dashing.
- Mitch mistakes Melanie for a clerk. They exchange a significant glance that says, "We are both incredibly attractive; sparks will now fly."
- Melanie decides to pretend to be a clerk. She helps Mitch find a pair of lovebirds for his 11-year-old sister.
- They banter, as Mitch asks her questions and Melanie tries to pretend she knows anything at all about birds.
- Melanie tries to show him a canary, but it gets away from her and flies around the shop. Mitch catches it.
- Then, he reveals that he knows Melanie because he's a defense attorney, and he saw a case in court in which one of her pranks caused the destruction of a window.
- Mitch is condescending; Melanie is irritated.
- It must be love.
- After Mitch leaves, Melanie runs downstairs after him and gets his license plate number.
- Melanie calls the newspaper (which her dad owns) and gets them to track down the license plate for her.
- Melanie then asks the store owner for lovebirds, to be delivered the next morning.