In 1924, stage-struck Boston blueblood Hannah Adams picks up musical star Tim O'Connor and takes him home for dinner. One thing leads to another, and when Tim's show rolls on to Chicago a new Mrs. O'Connor comes along as incompetent chorus girl. Hollywood beckons, and we follow the star careers of the O'Connor family in silents and talkies. Includes good imitation "silents" with classic cameo by Buster Keaton.

In Boston, in 1924, Hannah Adams attends a matinee of a stage musical she has already seen several times, The Girl from Vassar , co-starring Timothy O'Connor. Hannah idolizes Tim and after the show, waits in pouring rain near the stage door for him to emerge. When he asks her about restaurants nearby, Hannah tells him about a place with home cooked meals and the actor goes with her to Louisburg Square, unaware that she is taking him to her home. There, she introduces him to her father, a professor, her mother, Aunt Jane and younger brother Mark. Hannah changes into a pretty dress and they all sit down to dinner. Later, as Tim leaves, he invites Hannah to lunch the following day and kisses her goodnight. After lunch, they have dinner together, but when Tim takes her home, Hannah tells him they should not see each other again. Some time later, Tim shows up at a restaurant where Hannah and Aunt Jane, who has sent Tim a note in Hannah's name asking him to come, are having an afternoon snack. Although their family backgrounds are very different, Tim ends up proposing to Hannah. They discover that the knowing Jane has already arranged for the ceremony, flowers and ring. After they are married, Hannah goes on the road with Tim and even performs with the show's chorus. While they are in Chicago, Eddie Pflum, a talent scout for Superior Pictures, arranges for Tim to have a screen test in Los Angeles. There he meets studio head Henry Mercer, and Hannah is drafted to act in a love scene with Tim. Later, in their room at the Hollywood Hotel, Tim tells Hannah that the studio thinks it was one of the greatest tests ever made and wants to sign not him, but her. Hannah is reluctant to do it but eventually signs, becoming a big star in silent pictures while Tim continues his career on the stage. Time passes and Hannah is named the number one box office star for the third successive year. When Hannah finishes a picture and has to start another immediately, she is disappointed as she wants to spend time with Tim, who is performing in a Chicago nightclub. She goes there and surprises him, explaining that the studio postponed the picture after she told them she was going to have a baby, a lie which soon becomes a reality. While Hannah is away from the studio giving birth to a baby daughter, Jane, sound comes to the movies. Mercer offers Hannah the opportunity to continue in "talkies," but she chooses to retire and rear her daughter. However, she does promote Tim for a musical the studio is preparing and he appears in Song and Dance Man and becomes a star. When Jane is six years old, Tim and Hannah have a major dispute about his taking Jane out of school to watch him work at the studio. Tim tells Hannah not to worry as musicals are not doing well at the box office and he is contemplating retiring and becoming a farmer. Four years later, on their expansive ranch, the now retired Tim and Jane read in the trade papers that Superior Pictures has shut down a film due to the illness of its child star. Tim takes Jane to the studio and performs an audition with her for Mercer, who decides to restart the film with Jane as the lead. Hannah does not want Jane working in films but relents on the understanding that she will appear in only one picture. The film is a Civil War drama, Rebel in Crinoline and Tim is also cast as a black butler. Immediately upon finishing Rebel , the studio prepares to start another picture with Jane. Hannah is adamant that Jane not make any more pictures and realizes that Tim lied to her about the original contract. Hannah leaves for Boston taking Jane with her. Later, Mercer tells Tim, who has not heard from Hannah since her departure, that Rebel is to have its premiere in Boston. Jane attends the Boston premiere with her mother and grandmother and is introduced on stage after the screening. Tim shows up in the wings, having received another communication from Aunt Jane in Hannah's name, and reunites with his wife.