Small-town lass Winnie Wharton (real-life Ziegfeld Follies star Wini Shaw) is gifted with a golden voice and gumption to boot. Thanks to the assistance of her streetwise manager, Lucky Lorimer (Lyle Talbot), she rises to the top on Broadway as a torch singer. It's an ascent built from broken dreams, however, as Wini's piano player, Tommy (Phil Regan), has fallen for her, but she only has eyes for Lucky. Lucky, in turn, has his heart set on high-society dame Iris Marvin (Genevieve Tobin). While Lucky's sidekick, Fishcake Carter (Allen Jenkins), succeeds in wooing the wealthy widow Mrs. Duncan-Griswald-Wembly-Smythe (Spring Byington), Lucky's proposal to Iris is rebuffed. Determined to prove his worth to Iris, Lucky opens a gambling house, and Iris' brother, Ronnie (Donald Ross), a poisonous snob, soon ends up in hock to Lucky. It's a debt that soon proves costly to both torch singer and manager