Maggie Sherwoode is the longtime personal assistant to legendary R&B singer Grace Davis, who still has a successful touring career despite not releasing new material for a decade. Also an aspiring music producer, Maggie remixes Grace's songs in her free time. Grace's egocentric manager, Jack Robertson, believes that her time has passed and she should accept a
Las Vegas residency and release live albums rather than record new material. At a grocery store, Maggie meets aspiring musician David Cliff, watching him perform outdoors. He invites her to a party at his house, where to her surprise she learns that despite slumming it as a musician he is quite wealthy. Impressed by his voice, Maggie lies about being a professional producer and offers to work with him on an album. David accepts and they begin work together with Maggie coaching him through his nerves. Grace is displeased when a famous music producer modernizes one of her songs, remixing it with excessive synths and pop elements. Appalled, Maggie shows her own version of the song, and she releases Maggie's version, without payment or credit. While pleased to be producing for her, Jack pulls her aside to reveal how her tactlessness ruined potential future deals. When Grace later expresses her interest in recording a new album to her record label, they discourage her, pushing her towards the Vegas residency. When Maggie encourages Grace to disregard the label and create new material, Grace lectures her on how women of her age ("over 40") and race rarely succeed in releasing new material after successful earlier careers. Maggie and David begin a romance as recording for his demo comes to a close. At the same time, she learns that
Ariana Grande has backed out of opening for Grace's album launch. She initially books Dan Deakins to open for Grace before realizing it would be the perfect place for David to perform his songs. She enlists Dan's assistant to help but is surprised when Dan himself, after listening to David's songs, decides to step away to allow him to perform. On the night of the party, Maggie tells Jack and Grace that Dan has backed out and promises to fix it. She then asks David, who believed they were going on a date, to sing. Hearing that the party is for Grace Davis, David leaves in a huff, refusing to perform. Maggie tells Jack and Grace she was unable to deliver a backup performer and Grace berates her, mocking her ambitions to become a producer when she cannot even succeed as an assistant before firing her. Maggie moves back home with her father Max, a radio DJ, and starts planning her future. After encouragement from him, she reaches out to David to continue work on their album and to Grace to thank her for her time working for her. At the same time, Grace realizes that she misses Maggie, who was a faithful assistant who never used her. Grace arrives at Maggie's home and offers a roundabout apology. After complimenting her production work on the live album, she reveals that she has never worked with a female producer before but wants Maggie to be the first, also telling her that she has begun writing new material. While Grace is singing for her, David arrives. Before Maggie can introduce them, he reveals that Grace is his estranged mother, something she has kept from the public. He also tells her that Dan Deakins has been passing around his material leading him to an offer of representation from a studio. Later, David performs at a music festival. He asks Grace to join him on stage, revealing she is his mother, and they sing a duet as Maggie watches. Later in the studio, Maggie produces Grace's new album. ==Cast==