Kiki, a Parisian gamine who lives by her wits, graduates from newspaper seller to chorus girl, then is fired from the theater when she quarrels with Paulette, the star and sweetheart of Monsieur Renal, the manager.  Renal relents when Kiki begs for help and takes her to dinner, to the discomfiture of Paulette, who intrudes on the party with Baron Rapp, who is secretly wooing Paulette.  She tries to humiliate Kiki, but Renal out of sympathy takes her to his home and there becomes intrigued with her beauty.

Kiki continues to feud with Paulette, who conspires with the baron to lure the girl away from Renal.  Following a hair-pulling match with Paulette, Kiki feigns catalepsy.  Renal's sympathy turns to love; and when she "wakes up," and kisses him, he proposes marriage.