Enjoying a summer holiday in Weston-super-Mare, 20-year old beauty Shirley Freeman is spotted by a newspaper reporter, Don Mackenzie, who encourages her to enter a beauty contest.

When she wins Shirley finds herself intrigued by this new world but returns to her regular secretarial work. Don, however, is convinced he's found a winner: a great story that could run and run of a local girl and natural beauty. Gradually he convinces her to enter a bigger competition, which she ranks tantalisingly highly in, and learns a lot more about the possibilities of professional beauty contestants from some of the other girls.

Having an eye for just the right kind of publicity and a knack for swaying the public mood, Don steers his new charge - in the guise of her professional manager - through a series of bigger contests until she is crowned Rose of England, and with it secures entry to the top-rating international competition, Miss Globe.

However, Don is falling in love with Shirley, and fast; meanwhile, she's got a taste of success and the high life. With lucrative national contracts secured and global fame within grasp, the stakes keep on raising - increasingly, she'll do anything to win! Can the story end happily for both parties - or indeed, either of them?