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After a three-year run at the Knickerbocker Theatre in My Kind of Music, veteran Broadway song-and-dance man Bill Benson is convinced by his producer, Victor Lawrence, to team up with up-and-coming television variety star Ted Adams on Bill's next Broadway show.  The pair does an impromptu performance at Bill's closing night party, and their new partnership is solidified, though the show still lacks a female lead.

While on vacation in London, Bill sees Patsy Blair, an American performer, starring in an English musical revue.  Bill is so impressed by her singing and dancing that he offers Patsy the female lead.  Patsy initially turns down the role, as she lives in exile in Europe with her father Steve, a gambler, who is wanted back in the United States on tax evasion charges.  Steve convinces his daughter, to take the role, however, lying to her that he has resolved his problems with the Treasury Department.

Meanwhile, on his own vacation in Paris, Ted has signed Gaby Duval, a French nightclub entertainer, for the same role.  When Bill joins Ted in Paris, the two partners argue over which woman will play the lead in their show.  The matter remains unresolved, as all four performers set sail the next day for New York, with neither Gaby nor Patsy knowing of the existence of their theatrical rival.

Things are soon further complicated, when Gaby falls in love with Bill, and Patsy with Ted.  The smitten Ted quickly changes his allegiance to Patsy, and when Bill attempts to fire Gaby at dinner the next night, he becomes love-struck for the Frenchwoman.  The next morning, Ted mistakenly tells Gaby that Bill had planned to fire her the night before, rather than make love to her.  Feeling wronged, Gaby insists that she will remain in the show, as she has signed "an iron-clad contract."

Meanwhile, Steve is arrested by Alex Todd of the U.S. Treasury Department, but convinces the government agent to release him on his own recognizance until the ship docks in New York.  Learning of her father's plight, Patsy vows to dedicate herself to freeing her soon-to-be-incarcerated father.  To that end, she abruptly ends her romance with Ted, feeling it would be unfair to burden him with her family problems.  Overhearing the Blairs discuss Steve's predicament, Gaby then quits the show, even though Bill has decided to have it rewritten with roles for both women.  After Suzanne, Gaby's maid, tells Bill about her employer's sacrifice, the two men, with the help of the ship's captain, put on a musical magic act for the ship's passengers, which enables Ted to win back the heart of Patsy and Bill to reunite with Gaby.

Two years later, their show, You're the Top, is still the toast of Broadway, having run long enough for the newly released Steve to see his daughter and son-in-law perform on the New York stage.