Bessie Cobb, cake decorator in the kitchen of one of Miami's swankier hotels, is the central figure in an elaborate scheme by Chick Patterson, bell captain, who believes he can not only enrich Bessie, but himself, his fiancée, and the kitchen's three screwball chefs, Chef Popodopolis, Chef Petrovich and Chef Barzumium. He plans to enter Bessie in the singing contest sponsored by band-leader Danny Marlowe for a large recording company looking for new talent.. Chick has a recording made of Bessie's voice and substitutes it for that of "Sugar" Caston, who is being sponsored by a big-time gangster and is set up to win. But members of a rival gang, out to get "Sugar", mistake Besiie for her.