艾丽丝·菲娅、杰克哈特和秀兰·邓波儿一起在这动人的音乐片中献技出演。富有的连续剧制片商只知埋首工作，经常忽略了女儿芭芭拉。一次偶然的机会，芭芭拉参加了电台的演出，并在另一家连续剧中试演成功，一跃成为电台明星。

When Mrs. Harding dies, she leaves a mysterious letter to her pastor. The note tells how her cold, miserly husband worked her to death. She asks the pastor to administer a small trust which she has bequeathed her daughter so that the girl might enjoy some finery which her father has always denied her. The village milliner carries the latest hat styles from New York, one of which has caught the girl's fancy. The pastor, loyal to the dying mother's wishes, buys the young lady the hat. Soon gossip spreads through the village...

Steve Tuttle, the titular lazybones, takes on the responsibility of raising a fatherless girl, causing a scandal in his small town. Many years later, having returned from World War I, he discovers that he loves the grown-up girl.

When Pollyanna is orphaned, she's sent to live with her crotchety Aunt Polly. Pollyanna discovers that many of the people in her aunt's New England hometown are as ill-tempered as her aunt. But Pollyanna's incurable optimism - exemplified by her "glad game", in which she looks for the bright side of every situation - brings a change to the staid old community.