This film sticks very closely to the Edna Ferber novel, rather than the musical based on the novel. There are only two major changes from Ferber's book : *Julie in this version is a white woman, not a racially mixed one; therefore she and her husband are not unlawfully married. * Ravenal returns at the end, instead of dying as in the novel

A spy known as "1932" during World War I, is commissioned by the German Secret Service to trail English agent Captain Woodhouse to the Straits of Gibraltar and there effect the destruction of the British fleet. Before his departure, 1932 helps Jane Gerson, an American girl falsely accused of espionage, and later falls in love with her.