Summary
Charleston rhythms ricochet through the nouveau-riche marble halls of the recently minted Hogarths, a clan whose fortune arrived faster than their etiquette; into this chandeliered chaos pirouettes Dexter “Dex” Delaney, a terpsichorean maestro whose shoes still bear the rosin of modest dance-halls. What begins as a single waltz lesson for the clumsy heiress Millicent Hogarth—portrayed by Charlotte Mineau with a flapper’s impatience and a matron’s purse strings—spirals into a tango of social pretense. Patrick Kelly’s Dex, all fox-trot elegance and razor-sharp timing, soon discovers that every polished parquet conceals a trapdoor: the family’s patriarch (John Rand) gambles on stock tips whispered by a gold-digging contralto (Virginia Fox), while the matriarch (Fanny Kelly) commissions gaudy frescoes that would make Medici weep. Between sabotaged dance cards, a stolen Stradivarius, and a midnight rooftop Charleston contest judged by a tipsy ambassador (Billy Bevan), Dex must decide whether to exploit the Hogarths’ checkbook or rescue them from their own garish excess. The climax erupts during a masquerade ball where neon confetti, a rogue xylophone, and Ford Sterling’s scene-stealing butler collide; fortunes collapse quicker than a soufflé, yet on the dawn-lit veranda Dex and Millicent—now stripped of diamonds but glowing with something fiercer—execute a barefoot soft-shoe on wet flagstones, proving grace needs no gilt frame.
Synopsis
A dancing instructor gets involved with a newly rich family.
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