In 1929, in Bloomington, Illinois, Peggy Mayhew, her escort Roy and friends Louise Crane and Eddie go to a dance at the Electric Gardens where Chuck Arnold and His Sophisticates are appearing. Peggy is stunned by Chuck's versatility; he sings, plays trumpet, clarinet and trombone, as well as leading the band. Peggy wins a lucky number drawing, and when the prizes are presented by Chuck, she instantly falls in love with him, kissing him in front of all the dancers. Later, Chuck invites Peggy to come to Peoria, where the band will be playing the next evening. Peggy's parents, Andrew and Cora Mayhew, tell her at dinner the following evening that the whole town is talking about her behavior at the dance. Ignoring her parents' admonitions, Peggy sneaks out and takes a bus to Peoria, but is denied admission to the dance as she is unescorted. She spots Chuck's manager, Oscar, and asks him to take a note to Chuck, but Oscar later tears it up to protect Peggy from engaging in a one-night stand with the musician. She waits until the dance is over to meet Chuck, and after she misses her bus home, she accepts his offer to ride home in the band bus. The next morning, Mrs. Mayhew finds Peggy and Chuck asleep on her sofa, and is shocked when they wake up and announce that they were married a few hours ago. Peggy goes on the road with Chuck and the band. The band does well in the Midwest, and Chuck tells Peggy that they have been booked into the Pennsylvania Hotel in New York. Peggy shows him the Variety headline, "Wall St. Lays An Egg," but he dismisses this as just a little flurry in the market. After he fails to keep a dinner date because he is auditioning a new song, Chuck finds Peggy sobbing, upset because he is always immersed in his music. Chuck promises her that when they get to New York things will be a lot better. However, Oscar brings Chuck a telegram which states that their New York engagement has been canceled. Hurt by the stock market crash, the tour falls apart, forcing Peggy and Chuck to return to Bloomington to stay with her parents. When Peggy meets some of her old friends at the drug store, where one of the recordings Chuck and the band made is being played, Chuck and Peggy pretend to be "flush." Peggy is particularly concerned about Chuck's nonchalant approach to money, and friction develops between Peggy and her mother over Chuck's unwillingness to work. The company for which the band has recorded then goes bankrupt, so there will be no more royalty checks to help support them. Peggy learns that she is pregnant and, while filling a prescription at the drug store, sees Louise and the others, who make fun of the fact that none of the major bookings Chuck has been boasting about have materialized. After Peggy's father, who has been forced to lay off men from the brick works he owns, puts himself back on the production line, Oscar telegrams that he has a booking for the band at a vaudeville theater in Chicago. Peggy wants Chuck to accept but the prideful Chuck refuses. Fed up, Peggy accuses Chuck of sponging off her family, and Chuck packs and heads for the railroad station. As Peggy's mother comforts her, Oscar arrives looking for Chuck, and Peggy tells him what has happened. That night Mr. Mayhew returns home from the brick works and brings along a new employee--Chuck--and Peggy, Chuck and Oscar are reunited. Three years later, the economy has picked up and Oscar is vice-president in charge of sales at the Mayhew brick works. In New York, Peggy, Louise and Eddie enjoy watching Chuck and the band play during their successful engagement at the Pennsylvania Hotel. Peggy and Chuck and their three-year-old son now have a bright future ahead of them.