A married vaudeville team struggles to raise a family while touring the nation.
In 1900, Myrtle McKinley graduates from high school in Oakland, California. Her grandparents, with whom she lives, expect her to attend business college in San Francisco but she joins the chorus at a vaudeville theater instead. There Myrtle meets singer/dancer Frank Burt, who eventually invites her to form a double act with him. They are successful together and Myrtle begins to pressure Frank to ask her to marry him. At one point, she leaves Frank to work in an act with another singer, but returns to him when she discovers she is unsuccessful without him. Frank finally proposes marriage and, as husband and wife, they tour the country in vaudeville until Myrtle becomes pregnant. She retires from the act while Frank continues with new partners. After Myrtle goes back to live with her grandmother, she gives birth to a girl, whom she names Iris, and three years later has another daughter, Mikie. A few years pass and Myrtle receives a telegram from Frank urging her to come back to the act as a replacement for a partner who has left to go into the movies. Myrtle resumes touring and the act becomes even more successful. Meanwhile, Iris and Mikie stay with Grandma and attend school, but miss their parents, whom they see only occasionally. One Christmas, when the family is separated, Grandma sends the girls to visit their parents in Boston, where they are appearing, and they enjoy the camaradarie of the entire vaudeville troupe. One summer Frank and Myrtle go on vacation with the girls at an expensive, but stuffy, summer resort filled mostly with elderly guests. However, the family soon livens the place up and Iris meets a young man, Bob Clarkman, from a society family. Later, Myrtle persuades Frank to enroll the girls in an exclusive boarding school and Iris continues to see Bob. However, she becomes embarrassed by her parents' profession and is horrified when they announce that they have arranged a booking in the town where the school is located. After Mikie chastises Iris for being ashamed of their parents, Iris tells them that she loves them but that they are so different from her friends' parents. Myrtle arranges with the school's principal to have all of Iris' classmates attend their local appearance. Their elegant act scores a big hit with everyone and Iris realizes that she has been foolish. Later, Iris becomes an honor student in the school of music, and at her graduation ceremony, which is attended by Frank, Myrtle and Mikie, she performs one of the songs her parents have long featured in their act. Iris eventually marries Bob and enters show business. Mikie also marries and every Sunday takes her children to visit their grandparents.
