A singing soldier has just returned home to find himself discontent with both his work at his father's opera company or to pick up where he left off with his girlfriend. Having met an aquacade showgirl while in the service, he reintroduces himself and soon romance blossoms.

The story of 'the incomparable Annette Kellerman,' an Australian swimming champion and water ballet artist who ends up performing in New York's Hippodrome. When Annette is young, she is hampered by cumbersome leg braces. She starts swimming to strengthen her legs and before long, a star is born. She swims and dives her way through the show-biz ranks, struggling to support her musician father and fighting a woman's battle between love and career.

Mimi is a half-American, half-Tahitian girl who has been raised on the island. She longs to go to the United States. Luckily, Hap Endicott arrives on the island. He's an Ohio schoolteacher who has come to manage his late uncle's coconut plantation. The two meet and begin to see more of each other.