Patricia Harper, daughter of Texas oil man and millionaire James Harper, is vacationing with her Aunt Isabel Channing in Paris. There she dines with her fiancé, Eliott Winthrop, who is soon to be an important diplomat. Bored by Eliott's snobby friends, Pat joins an American theatrical troupe led by Buck Boswell that is stranded in Paris. After faking an attempt at suicide so the troupe can flee a hotel, Pat and her father sleep with the troupe backstage at the Exposition Internationale, which will feature a pageant of the history of the feminine arts. After Buck convinces a group of Russian models that they are too late for the dress rehearsal, his troupe becomes part of the show. When Pat admires a necklace on loan from the French government that Napoleon gave to Josephine, James steals it in order to get it copied. The police arrive and the troupe flees to the Royal Carlton, where Pat gets them a suite. When Eliott discovers James's and Pat's picture in the paper as Russian impostors, Pat shamefully quits the troupe. Buck believes Pat and James are indigent and so proposes to Pat in order to keep her off the streets, but she declines, keeping her identity a mystery. James then hides the copied jewels in Buck's drawer, and when Buck discovers them he deems James a thief. Gantvoort, a Dutch businessman, then arrives to secure James' sale of his oil lands to him, and Buck tears up the contract, insisting James is a crook. Buck then returns the necklace, and the authorities discover it is a fake and imprison Buck and the troupe, releasing them only so that Buck can lead them to the real jewels. At the Cafe Trocadero, all converge, and after the necklace is shot out of a cannon, Buck retrieves it and James explains his intentions and his real identity. Buck is absolved of guilt and deported along with his troupe, and James thanks Buck for saving his oil fields, which have recently increased in value. As they leave Paris, Buck and Pat make plans to marry.