In this remake of Grand Hotel, guests at a New York hotel fight to survive personal tragedy.

On a Friday afternoon, the main lobby of New York City's most elegant hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria, is busy with the excitement of arriving, departing and intermingling guests. Among those staying at the hotel are: Irene Malvern, a disillusioned, romance-starved movie star who is in New York for the opening of her latest film; Chip Collyer, a seasoned war correspondent for a newspaper who is resting before his trip to Europe; Captain James Hollis, an Air Force flyer who has returned from the war with a shrapnel fragment lodged near his heart; and Martin X. Edley, a crooked oil stock promoter intent on defrauding the visiting Bey of Aribajan. As part of his scheme, Edley gives the bey the false impression that he is in a partnership with Mr. Jessup, the president of Volcanic Oil. Bunny Smith, an attractive stenographer who dreams of wealth, sees Edley as her ticket to riches, but develops an affection for James soon after she learns that he is scheduled to undergo a risky operation in Washington the following week. Meanwhile, Irene learns that a man has been trying to get closer to her expensive jewels by romancing her maid, Anna. Irene tells Anna to deliver her room key to the jewel thief, in the hopes that she might persuade him through reason to give up his scheme. After asking the hotel police to station a house detective outside her door, Irene waits for the jewel thief to enter. When James loses the sheet music for a song he wrote, a hotel staff member finds it and mistakenly delivers it to orchestra leader Xavier Cugat. Cugat likes the song and promises James that he will play it at his next show. Later that night, Oliver Webson, a cub reporter covering the Edley deal, tells Chip that Edley is negotiating with the bey, and that their contract is bad for the country. Chip offers Oliver help in getting his story, and while doing so, accidentally enters Irene's room. Irene accuses Chip of being a jewel thief, and Chip, who has had a long-standing infatuation with the actress, does not reveal his true identity. After conversing much of the evening, Irene allows Chip to stay in her room to avoid being caught by the house detective. James, meanwhile, falls in love with Bunny, and after telling her his life story, plans a Saturday dinner date with her. On Saturday morning, Irene realizes that Chip is not a jewel thief when Anna telephones her and tells her that the crook has reformed and was with her the previous evening. Later, when Cynthia Drew, a young bride-to-be, tells Irene that she thinks that her fiancé, Bob, is carrying a torch for Irene, Irene tries to prevent Cynthia from calling off the wedding by telling her that she is married to Chip. Chip goes along with the hoax, though he has truly fallen in love with Irene. Edley, meanwhile, asks Bunny to be the bey's escort at a party that night, which forces her to choose between her affection for James and her future employment with Edley. Bunny chooses Edley and cancels her date with James only hours before she was to meet him. Chip, who has been enjoying his "marriage" to Irene, insists that Irene is now his common-law bride because she has introduced him as her husband. Later that night, in the Starlight ballroom, James sees Bunny enter the room with the bey and is heartbroken. On Sunday morning, a newspaper gossip column reports Chip and Irene's supposed marriage, and though the publicity infuriates Irene, she soon realizes that she is in love with Chip. When Monday arrives, a newspaper exposes Edley's fraud and Bunny tells James that she will accompany him to Washington to be with him during his operation. Before checking out of the hotel and leaving for Europe, Chip promises to reunite with Irene when he returns.