In a remote village on the Great Plain of Hungary the Harvest Festival is being celebrated at the farm of Frau Julika. After their praise of grape and grain, however, the people are much more concerned with paying a tribute to their local heroine, and the Mayor himself unveils a plaque to Roszi Belvary, the village maiden who is believed to be making a hit on the Paris stage.

A supercilious view of the event is taken by Count Ferenc, the tyrannous overlord of the district, whose mouth curls again as he inspects a photograph of “Michael Hajos”, a young musician who has sought rural seclusion in order to write an operetta.

Michael fancies that Roszi may one day take the lead in his show. The sudden return of Roszi to the village confirms that fancy, for he finds the “famous” actress charming in more than voice. He has yet to know that her Paris “triumphs” were purely imaginary, but, on the other hand, she has yet to find that he is in reality the Archduke Michael, nephew of the empress Elizabeth.

Roszi means to confess, but leaves her move too late, and finally pours forth her story when Ferenc, who has a dishonourable interest in Roszi, confronts the young couple with the Empress.  Under the imperious persuasion of his aunt, Michael leaves Roszi without revealing what is in his heart.

Months later, at the Café Continental in Budapest, the faithful Julika and her friend Mikki, the comic photographer, work up a little scene by which Roszi, still hoping for stardom, is able to sing within the hearing of Bardos, a theatrical manager in search of a leading lady. Bardos, though impressed, enquires angrily how she came by the song. Behind him, however, is Michael, well aware how Roszi came to know “Magyar Melody”. Misunderstandings are swept aside, and Roszi gets the part.

But Count Ferenc has still to be reckoned with. At the prompting of Major Lonay he hires a gang to demonstrate again Roszi at the first night of the operetta. In spite of heroic intervention by Julika the plot is about to succeed when the Empress enters the theatre. Her presence silences the interrupters and the show is acclaimed as a great success.

Ferenc, however, has one move more. He reveals to the Empress that Michael and Roszi, in their hour of triumph, are now in love. Seeking out the bewildered girl, Elizabeth discloses Michael’s identity and persuades Roszi to believe that in clinging to her lover she would ruin his career. Heartbroken, Roszi lies to Michael that as an actress she could never be the prisoner of a wedding ring.

Fortunately there remains Act 3, in which, by tradition, wrongs are righted. The setting is an hotel in the Tyrol, where the Empress, convinced that Michael is unhappy, reveals to him her own part in engineering the trouble. Roszi makes a timely arrival and hears the Empress say, “This time your path is free”.