In 42nd Street, a performer in Philadelphia breaks her ankle and ends up in a wheelchair. Despite this setback, she remains determined to pursue her dreams of becoming a successful actress and dancer.

Anne struggles to the point of exhaustion to keep her small fruit and vegetable farm going. After her husband Harry left her and Cornwall to devote himself to his new lover and the Ministry of Agriculture in London, she has to take care of everything on her own. Including her teenage daughter Jamie, who is a talented footballer, and her mother Molly, who is fed up with her life as a hard-working farmer and is less and less able to help. But then an unexpected gift suddenly arrives on the doorstep: John, Lady Sally's butler. She is Molly's sister, who broke off contact with the family after her marriage to the diplomat Lord Trevenna. Sally, now widowed, wants to borrow her butler for six weeks. Anne is firmly against it. But Molly, who believes that her sister has lived the life she was entitled to, wants to make the most of the butler's services.