Robert "Bob" Davis, Fred Astaire, is a celebrated American dancer with a fondness for horse racing. After losing his money gambling in Buenos Aires, he goes looking for work with Eduardo Acuña, Adolphe Menjou, the wealthy nightclub owner who would rather not see him at all. Bob’s friend, bandleader and globe-trotting facilitator Xavier Cugat, invites him to perform at the wedding of Acuña’s eldest daughter, Julia Catherine Craig. The upcoming ceremony is not just a family affair but a carefully arranged social rite, because Eduardo insists his daughters must wed in order of age—from oldest to youngest.
Maria Acuña, Rita Hayworth, is next in line to marry, but she resists the pressure, much to the disappointment of her younger sisters Cecy Leslie Brooks and Lita Adele Mara, who both have boyfriends and want to settle down as soon as possible. At Julia’s wedding reception, Bob finds himself irresistibly drawn to Maria, though she rebuffs his advances. He muses, with a touch of sarcasm, that Maria’s temperament might be “the inside of a refrigerator.”
> "the inside of a refrigerator"
Acuña, ever the strategist, hatches a plan: he sends orchids and anonymous love notes to Maria from a supposed secret admirer to help move her mood and heart. One day, when Bob tries to see Eduardo in his office, Acuña mistakes him for a bellboy and sends him to deliver the latest note and bouquet. Maria, now swooning for her supposed admirer, witnesses Bob delivering the note and assumes he is the mysterious correspondent. She soon asks her father to introduce them and invites Bob to dinner.
At dinner, a near-miss moment with Mrs. Acuña—who nearly shoots Bob—sets the tone for a lively garden sequence later, where Maria and Bob dance under the stars. Eduardo’s plan begins to blur the lines between strategy and genuine feeling: he urges Bob to court Maria while outwardly playing the part of someone with a rough edge and a deliberately irritating charm, all in exchange for a contract to perform at the club on a later date.
Despite Bob’s best efforts to project a persona that should push Maria away, the two members of this unlikely pair quickly fall in love. As the family marks its 25th anniversary, Cecy and Lita scheme to pull them apart, and Mrs. Acuña, Delfina Acuña in the household, perceives trouble when she spots Bob scribbling a farewell note intended for the “secret admirer.” She accuses him of infidelity with another Maria—the real Maria Castro, portrayed by Isobel Elsom—in a tense confrontation that tests the couple’s resolve.
Bob must face the truth about the love intrigue, and Eduardo, moved by Bob’s sincerity, finally grants him permission to date Maria. Yet the road to harmony remains rocky as Maria’s early doubts resurface and the idea of a lasting match feels fragile. In the climactic moment, Bob borrows a legend to win Maria’s heart: he imitates Lochinvar, a fictional knight, and channels a gallant, party-ready swagger in the dance. The performance speaks louder than words, and Maria is won not merely by deception but by a genuine shift in Bob’s heart and his willingness to grow beyond the “obnoxious” persona he was asked to play.
In the end, love persuades Maria that Bob’s affection is real, and the couple finds a path forward together, backed by a family that learns to accept the unconventional journey of two people who discovered each other in the most unexpected of circumstances.
