After hot-tempered professional hockey player Don Martin slugs a referee during a game, he is barred from the game for life. Chris Linden, the starry-eyed figure skater who performs in the half-time show, has a crush on Don and believes that she can help the hard-drinking skater mend his ways. Impressed by Chris's skating ability, Buzz Fletcher, an old school chum of Don's and now the owner of an ice revue, offers Chris and her troupe a booking. Upon learning that Don has embarked upon yet another drunken spree, Chris visits the skater and his friend and manager, Bill Evans, and asks him to join her in Buzz's show. Meanwhile, Buzz's wife Gail, who is bored with her marriage and a life on ice, decides to make romantic overtures to Don to relieve her tedium. Gail's predatory behavior disturbs Chris's close friend Wilma and the rest of her troupe. Unaware of Don's romantic and drinking escapades, Chris continues to mother him and one day, he half-heartedly proposes to her. After the wedding, Gail, feeling rejected, snubs Don, causing Buzz to wonder if they had a disagreement. While on the train to the troupe's next engagement, talent scout and ice show promoter Jack Weimar questions Buzz about Don's reliability. Bent on revenge, Gail declares that Don is an unreformed drunk. When Buzz informs Don that Jack is interested in starring him in a show, the elated Don buys Chris an expensive emerald ring. Upon returning to the hotel that afternoon, Don encounters Gail waiting for him in the lobby. Determined to sabotage his career, Gail decides to get him drunk before his audition for Jack. When Don fails to appear for the performance that evening, Chris becomes frantic with concern. Don finally arrives drunk, and Buzz realizes that he has spent the afternoon with Gail at the Paradise Bar. As Bill valiantly attempts to sober Don up, Buzz angrily forbids him to perform, and the inebriated Don slips and knocks himself unconscious. Buzz then beseeches Chris to go on in Don's place. As Chris triumphantly comes off the ice, the emerald ring is delivered to her. Thrilled, Chris rushes to Don's dressing room to thank him, but he is not there. Impressed by Chris's talent, Jack offers her a spot in his show, but she refuses to go on without Don. Later, Buzz confronts Gail about her rendezvous with Don, and she admits to being in love with the skater. When Don learns that Chris has rejected her chance at stardom because of her refusal to break up their team, he decides to leave her, hoping to force her to accept Jack's offer. Upon learning that Don is leaving Chris, Gail informs Buzz that she is divorcing him. Although Don rejects Gail, he words his farewell letter to Chris to make her think that he is leaving her for Gail. Handing Buzz the letter to deliver to Chris, Don asks his old friend to give Chris the note once their train has left the station. Don's ploy works, and after reading the letter, Chris returns his ring and accepts Jack's offer. Two years later, Chris has become the star of the ice show. Bill has remained in touch with Wilma, and when he invites her and the troupe to see a hockey game involving a team of delinquent boys that Don has been coaching, she and Buzz eagerly accept. Inspired by the boys's spunk, Buzz suggests putting them in his show and invites them to a performance the following evening. Before going on that night, Chris is upset when she finds the emerald ring on her dressing room table. When she insists that Buzz return the ring to Don, Buzz finally tells Chris that Don did not leave her for Gail and is still in love with her. Claiming that Don has now matured, Buzz suggests that Chris meet him and his boys, and she eagerly accepts. Backstage, Chris and Don are joyfully reunited and Don slips the ring back on her finger.
