When questioned by reporters about how he got his start in business, tycoon M. M. "Pop" Barkley relates the following story: While operating a roadside café outside Los Angeles, Pop meets Martha Manning, an aspiring actress on her way to Hollywood. Also dining at the café is Larry Winters, who is instantly smitten with Martha. Martha rebuffs Larry, however, and sneaks out of the café while he and a small dog, which he assumes belongs to Martha, dance to the "Emperor's Waltz." Later, Martha shows up the Chateau La Rue, the Hollywood bungalow apartments at which her best friend, Gloria Devine, lives. Although Martha is dismayed to discover that would-be actress Gloria is not the success her letters had claimed, she remains determined to become a star. After a series of studio rejections, however, Martha is forced to take a job at a drugstore on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. Meanwhile, Larry, whose hit Broadway play has landed him a job at Lavish Studios, is assigned by studio head B. B. Lavish to write a script about Hollywood hopefuls. To research the story, Larry visits downtown Hollywood with Emperor, the café dog, and there bumps into Martha. Still enamored of Martha, Larry tries to return Emperor to her, but she runs off. Larry follows Martha to the Chateau and, although he is already living in a nice house with a butler named Jenkins, decides to rent a bungalow in order to be near her. When Larry once again tries to return Emperor to Martha, she finally tells him that the dog is not hers. Calling himself Larry Summers, Larry soon breaks down Martha's resistance and happily accepts the soda jerk job that she has gotten for him, thinking that he is a struggling writer. Later, Martha secretly reads Grandfather's Follies , Larry's hit, and unaware that it has already been staged and bought by Lavish, arranges to meet with the studio's story editor, B. B.'s brother Richard. The editor recognizes the play, which has no title page, and immediately calls B. B., who along with Larry's would-be fiancée, starlet Ann Mason, has been desperately searching for Larry. At the same time, Emperor, whom Martha has adopted, sneaks onto a Lavish set, where director Cedric Oscar Boris is auditioning dogs for his new film. Without coaxing, Emperor performs some cute tricks, and the excitable Cedric casts him. Before Cedric can sign the dog, however, Emperor dashes back to Martha's car and disappears from the lot. Later, B. B., Cedric and Ann, having tracked Larry through Martha, confront the writer at the drugstore. Although Larry insists that he was conducting research, B. B. is furious and fires him. Ann, whose "engagement" to Larry was arranged by Lavish's publicity department, then drops by the Chateau and smugly informs a confused Martha about her "relationship" with Larry. Hurt and angry, Martha runs off and refuses to see Larry anymore. Still determined to cast Emperor, Cedric, meanwhile, puts the dog's photograph in the newspaper. Gloria sees the photo and rushes Emperor to the studio, where he becomes an overnight star. Emperor's fame and fortune lead to a $500,000 lawsuit, filed by Abigail Whitehouse, who claims to be the dog's actual owner. During the subsequent trial, Pop testifies that Emperor had been hanging around his café for months before Larry found him and that Abigail, his neighbor, had abandoned him. Abigail finally admits that she had, in fact, dumped Emperor as a puppy, and Martha is declared the dog's legal owner. With the case dismissed, B. B. decides to rehire Larry, and Larry finally reunites with Martha, who decides to drop show business in favor of matrimony.