Show boat: When Julie La Verne and her husband Steve Baker are forced to leave the showboat Cotton Blossom, they are replaced by the Captain's daughter, Magnolia, and Gaylord Ravenal, a notorious gambler. Magnolia and Ravenal fall in love, marry, leave the boat and move to Chicago. They live off Ravenal's earnings from gambling. After they go broke, Gaylord feels guilty and leaves Magnolia, not knowing she is pregnant.