Jack Straw, an iceman, falls in love with the voice of Ethel Parker Jennings which he is accustomed to hearing down the dumbwaiter shaft of his Harlem flat. When the Jennings family acquires wealth through an oil investment, they move to California and Jack follows. Finding employment as a waiter, Jack meets Holland, who holds a grudge against the snobbish Mrs. Jennings. Holland enlists Jack in a scheme to humiliate the haughty woman by persuading the waiter to impersonate the Archduke of Pomerania. Jack consents, seizing upon the opportunity to be near Ethel, and during Jack's stay with the Jennings, the couple fall in love. Eventually Holland decides that the joke has gone too far and unmasks Jack. Mrs. Jennings expels Jack from the house, but when the real ambassador from Pomerania appears and documents Jack's authenticity, she recants and announces Ethel's engagement to the archduke waiter.