The film opens in 1940, with Lawrence in a screening room watching a documentary film chronicling her life, then Flashback (narrative) to Clapham in 1915, when she leaves home to join her vaudeville father in a dilapidated Brixton music hall. Eventually she joins the chorus in André Charlot's West End theatre revue. She reunites with close childhood friend Noël Coward who provides witty commentary on Gertie's actions.