Henri Danglard, proprietor of the fashionable (but bankrupt) cafe 'Le Paravent Chinois' featuring his mistress, belly-dancer Lola, goes slumming in Montmarte, circa 1890, where the then-old-fashioned cancan is still danced. There he conceives the idea of reviving the cancan as the feature of a new, more popular establishment...and meets Nini, a laundress and natural dancer whom he hopes will be the star of his new show. But a tangled maze of jealousies intervenes.