Duke Davis, singer Ethel Andrew's sweetheart, manager, and producer, finds himself in a dilemma when George Marshall, a New York booking agent, offers Ethel an opportunity to leave the show "Sepia Scandals," which is touring small towns, for New York City. Because Marshall has stipulated that Ethel must go without Duke, Duke anguishes over whether to encourage her departure, but he eventually consents to it when Marshall promises to launch her New York career. Ethel initially rejects Marshall's offer when she realizes that she will be separated from Duke, but when Duke tells her that he has sold their contract for a personal profit, she is heartbroken and changes her mind. Later, Ethel's friend Ella discovers that Duke, knowing that Ethel would never leave him willingly, intentionally angered her in order to force her to do what he thought was best for her. Ella agrees to keep his good motives a secret from Ethel. While Ethel's New York stint gets off to a successful start, Duke finds himself destitute and desperately seeks backing for his vaudeville show from booking agent Ed Lake. Lake, however, says that vaudeville is dead and rejects Duke's proposal. Although Duke later convinces Mr. Mason, a theater owner who had played his earlier show, to produce his new show, called "The Mobile Merry Makers," the show is a failure and Duke winds up having to support himself by working as a barker for Doc Dorando's traveling medicine show. Duke injects some much-needed showmanship into Dorando's pitch and, along with Dippy, an unemployed property man, they take to the road with their product, "Doc Dorando's Universal Elixir." A year passes and one day, while listening to the radio, Duke hears that a show in which Ethel was appearing has flopped and he rushes to New York to be with her. Ella tells Ethel the truth about Duke, and when Duke arrives in New York, he meets with Ferdie Fenton, producer and club owner, who has been blamed for rushing Ethel's career and causing her failure. Duke soon secures permission from Fenton to create a new show and he and Ethel appear on stage together, reunited at last.