New York, 1916. While war rages in Europe, vaudeville performers sing the newest songs by night and young women march for the vote during the day. Monroe Simonov, a song-plugger, is in love with a Ziegfeld Follies dancer who's left him for California. Inez Kennedy, a department store fashion model, needs to find a wealthy husband before she must return to the Midwest. Anna Denisova, a political exile, waits for the overthrow of the Tsar. Then America joins the war, jazz sweeps the city's dance floors, the old order is swept away by newly minted millionaires and the nation is gripped by the Red Scare. The world is rapidly changing, but Monroe, Inez and Anna are still subject to the tyranny of the heart...