When a crafty reporter uses false pretenses to get a story out of heiress Tony Gateson, she turns the tables on him, telling the press that they are engaged. Suddenly he's front page news, every salesman is at his doorstep, and he loses his job. A series of misadventures ensues with him alternately back on his job and fired and her ex-fiancé showing up.
Shortly before the curtain goes up the first time at the latest performance of Earl Carroll's Vanities, someone is attempting to injure the leading lady Ann Ware, who wants to marry leading man Eric Lander. Stage manager Jack Ellery calls in his friend, policeman Bill Murdock, to help him investigate. Bill thinks Jack is offering to let him see the show from an unusual viewpoint after he forgot to get him tickets for the performance, but then they find the corpse of a murdered woman and Bill immediately suspects Eric of the crime.
Louis Fernando fails to sell a patent upon which he has spent the better part of his life and drowns himself. His orphaned child Marie is adopted by Lord Chatterton. Geoffrey Brooke, who is in the employ of Lord Chatterton, falls in love with Marie. Chatterton's general manager Arthur Newton also loves Marie and formulates a scheme whereby he hopes to win her and also acquire the Chatterton fortune. Chatterton becomes suspicious and by a ruse traps Newton and exposes his plot. Marie and Geoffrey are made happy in the end.
