The screenplay, by Augustus and Ruth Goetz, is based on the stage play Morning Glory by Zoë Akins, which also served as the basis for the 1933 film Morning Glory starring Katharine Hepburn, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Adolphe Menjou in corresponding roles.

New Englander Eva Lovelace, an ingenue intent on conquering the Broadway stage, is willing to sacrifice everything, including her love for suave producer Lewis Easton, to achieve her goal.

[2] In his review in The New York Times, A.H. Weiler opined, "the moviemakers ... obviously are devoted people, whose emotions, unfortunately, rarely move a viewer ...

The fact is that the bare bones of the plot ... do not constitute a great revelation in a sophisticated age ... Susan Strasberg ... is competent as the determined Eva Lovelace.

She is petite and fragile and sometimes expressive but strangely pallid in a role that would seem to call for fire, not mere smoldering ... Christopher Plummer ... is restrained but effective.