Mendoza, who had an affair with the star of the original production of La Vie parisienne in 1900, returns in 1935 with his son and granddaughter. His granddaughter is engaged to a young Frenchman, but Mendoza's strait-laced and puritanical son initially forbids the marriage. The core conflict involves Mendoza and his old Parisian friends conspiring to change the son's mind and convince him to embrace the titular "Parisian life".