Sue Graham (Mabel Normand), a small-town girl from River Bend, Illinois, dreams of becoming a movie star to escape an unwanted marriage. She sends a photo to a film studio contest, but a love rival switches her photo with one of a beautiful model. Sue wins a contract based on the switched photo and travels to Hollywood with her childhood sweetheart, Dave Giddings (Ralph Graves), following her. When the studio discovers the mistake, she is not given an acting role but a job in the costume department instead. Chaos ensues as Sue works behind the scenes, leading to several comedic highlights, including a disastrous screen test and an incident where she mistakes a real, man-eating lion for a dog in a costume and leads it around the studio lot. Meanwhile, Sue's parents arrive in California and are swindled out of their life savings by a con artist. Ultimately, Sue and Dave work together to recover the money, and despite her unsuccessful film career, all ends well when she returns home and marries Dave.