In this story, Harlow starts in the movies as set dressing, the pretty girl who is used for the glamour shots. Refusing to descend to the casting couch for work, she finds that she is soon blacklisted from the industry. But an agent named Arthur sees something in Jean and begins representing her. For a long time, the jobs are scarce and consist mostly of receiving the pie in the face in low budget comedies. But Arthur's belief in Jean never wavers and when she finally graduates to featured roles, the critics say that she cannot act, but she is unforgettable. Polishing the image as the girl next door, but with some fire, she begins her climb to the top and becomes the girl every woman wants to look like and every man wants to have. But her own life is a disaster - unlike her screen life.

Jean Harlow, an aspiring actress in Hollywood in the 1920's, supports her mother and lazy stepfather, Marino Bello, by taking bit parts in the movies. Agent Arthur Landau recognizes that the platinum blonde actress could become a new sex symbol. He gets Jean better roles, including some in slapstick comedy, until she is signed by Richard Manley, an independent producer. Jean needs more money to support her parents, and Landau tricks Manley into releasing Jean from her contract after her triumphant personal-appearance tour. She signs with Everett Redman, head of a major Hollywood studio. Though she has become Hollywood's leading sex symbol, Jean is still chaste and actually afraid of men. Both actor Jack Harrison and studio executive Paul Bern ask to marry Jean, and in an extravagant Hollywood wedding, she marries Bern but on their wedding night discovers he is impotent. After Bern commits suicide, Harlow starts drinking heavily. In her search for love she turns to Bello, Manley, and Harrison--all of whom reject her. Though she is at the height of her career, Jean starts picking up strangers in bars. Her drinking and promiscuity lead to her early death at the age of 26.