INTERNATIONAL HOUSE

At International House, a large hotel in metropolitan Wuhu, China Chinese inventor Dr. Wong is soliciting bids for the rights to his "radioscope", a kind of television. Unlike real television, his contraption does not need a camera; it can look in on events anywhere in the world as if it were a ground-penetrating electronic telescope, complete with audio.

Prof. Henry R. Quail is one of many people from around the world converging on the hotel, though he is one of the few not hoping to buy (or steal) Dr. Wong's invention, as he was intending to land in Kansas City in his autogyro but flew off course. Also converging on the hotel are four-times-divorced American celebrity Peggy Hopkins Joyce avoiding one of her ex-husbands, violently jealous Russian General Petronovich; Tommy, the representative of an American electric company, hoping to buy Wong's invention and finally wed his sweetheart Carol; resident physician Dr. Burns and his goofy aide Nurse Allen dealing with a quarantine at the hotel; and the exasperation of the hotel's fussy and frustrated manager.

Dr. Wong is particularly eager to look in on a six-day indoor bicycle race in New York, but instead somehow brings in performances by popular crooner Rudy Vallée, bandleader-vocalist Cab Calloway, and precocious torch singer Baby Rose Marie, and comedians Stoopnagle and Budd. A floor show (featuring Sterling Holloway and Lona Andre) is also performed in the hotel's rooftop garden restaurant.

Ultimately, Tommy wins both the rights to the radioscope and his sweetheart, and Peggy Hopkins Joyce, having learned that Prof. Quail is a millionaire, quickly attaches herself to her next sugar daddy. Prof. Quail and his new companion are chased as he drives his little American Austin automobile through several public areas of the hotel and down several flights of a fire escape before driving it back into the hold of his autogyro and taking off.

Tommy wins both the rights to the radioscope and his sweetheart, while Peggy Hopkins Joyce latches onto Prof. Quail after learning he is a millionaire; Quail and Peggy are chased in a comic car sequence before taking off in Quail's autogyro.

The ending wraps up the film’s slapstick competition for the radioscope and romantic entanglements with a double dose of farce: business triumph, romantic resolution, and a final comic escape. True to the film’s chaotic spirit, the climactic chase and airborne exit reinforce its anything-goes, screwball tone, sending the characters—and their ambitions—literally flying off into the unknown.