Smitten with photographs of musical revue star Linda
Keene, Pete P. Peters, an American ballet dancer living in Paris and
performing under the name Petrov, vows to his impresario, Jeffrey
Baird, that he will meet and marry her. However, when Pete,
who secretly prefers jazz dancing to formal ballet, finally arrives
at Linda's apartment, he overhears her eschewing her fawning male
admirers and expressing to her nearly bankrupt producer, Arthur
Miller, her desire to quit show business. With his thickest
Russian accent, Pete introduces himself as Petrov, the temperamental
ballet star, and pretends to be unimpressed by Linda.
Then, to be near her as well as be away from Lady
Tarrington, a former ballerina and dogged admirer of his, Pete
tricks Jeffrey into booking passage for him on the same New
York-bound boat on which Linda is sailing the next day. Before
boarding the liner, Pete encounters Lady Tarrington and, in order to
rid himself of her, confirms Jeffrey's story that he has been
married in secret for four years.
While sailing to New York, Pete connives to join
Linda as she takes her little dog on his daily walks and gradually
wins favor with her. However, after rumors generated through
Lady Tarrington about Pete's "secret marriage" begin to spread
around the boat, Linda's attentions to Pete lead to speculation that
she is Pete's wife and is pregnant. When an outraged Linda
then hears from Jeffrey that Pete used her to avoid Lady Tarrington,
she grabs the next mail airplane to New York.
After Linda assures her confused Park Avenue fiancée,
Jim Montgomery, that she is still single, Arthur throws a party for
the couple on the hotel's roof. During the party, Arthur, who
doesn't want Linda to marry Jim and leave show business, connives to
have her perform an impromptu dance with Pete, then conspires with a
publicity man to have a sleeping Pete photographed with a mannequin
of Linda. The published photograph, which is offered as proof
of Pete and Linda's marriage, forces the reluctant couple to flee
from reporters, and eventually leads them to marry secretly in New
Jersey. Linda agrees to the marriage on the condition that she
can divorce Pete immediately, but soon realizes that she truly loves
the dancer. However, when she finds Pete with Lady Tarrington,
she disappears from the hotel and initiates divorce proceedings.
Although the resulting scandal causes Pete to lose
his engagement with the Metropolitan Ballet Company, Arthur,
desperate over the absence of Linda, offers to feature him in his
upcoming musical revue. At the show's opening, Linda arrives
to serve Pete his divorce papers, but when she sees the number that
he created, in which all of the dancers are wearing masks of her
face, her anger dissolves. By placing herself in the dance,
Linda reunites on stage with a joyful Pete.