On his way back from California to New York, orchestra leader Don Hayes visits Kansas City, his hometown, and finds his old sweetheart, Judy Chibbins, performing songs with her brother Bob in the sheet music department of a five-and-ten-cents store. Hoping that he will be interested in the songs she and Bob wrote, Judy invites Don to dinner at their home. At the Chibbins home, however, a feud is going on between the children from Judy's father Timothy's first marriage, Judy, Bob and their younger brother Mickey, and their stepmother, former Broadway star Trixie Valleron, and her daughter Nellie. Because Timothy, a former inventor, has given in to Trixie's extravagant whims, Judy and Bob have had to quit college. Mickey and Timothy have been made to do housework, while Nellie practices ballet and Trixie lounges in bed. Although Judy and Bob try to keep Trixie from meeting Don, Trixie interrupts their performance of their songs and gives an old-fashioned rendition of one of them. When Judy learns that Don, who has discovered he is still in love with her, is more impressed with Trixie's singing than the songs, she angrily tells him to leave. In New York, Sanfield, the owner of the exclusive club where Don's band plays, longs for a singer with something "different." After convincing him that Trixie, dressed in gay nineties' fashion, could be just what he is looking for, Don pays for the whole family to come to New York. Because they know that Trixie will not sing their songs, Judy and Bob ask Don to tell Trixie that their songs are by other songwriters. On the day of her opening, Trixie visits her old friend Queenie, who, jealous of Trixie's opportunity, talks down the club and convinces Trixie that it would be beneath her to perform there. However, just before the show begins, Queenie's husband Bowers comes home and tells Trixie that the club has a reputation for making stars of its performers. Despite a black eye Trixie gets from fighting with Queenie, she is a hit, but when she learns that Judy and Bob really wrote the songs, she refuses to sing any more. Sanfield, however, pushes her onstage, and her performing instincts take over. After a producer in the audience hires Judy and Bob to write his next show, Judy reconciles with Trixie and plans to marry Don.