The King of Spain visits poverty-stricken Serbia. Rosita is a beloved street singer and praised by the townspeople. She is infuriated with the gap between the rich and the poor. She sings to make fun of the king. The furious king visits her place to punish her, but is enamored of her. She is arrested for insulting the king publicly. Don Diego tries to defend her but is imprisoned too. Rosita and Don Diego fall in love with each other. However, she fails to reject the king's offer of release for her family's wellbeing.
Mary Pickford suffered from the financial difficulty of her studio United Artists and wanted to move on from girl roles to adult characters. She realized that period drams gamered commercial success and decided to invite director Enrst Lubitsch, who was famous in Europe, to Hollywood. Out of potential projects, the two decided to adapt the opera Don Cesar de Bazan into Rosita and gained great success.
Restored by The Museum of Modern Art and The Film Foundation with funding provided by the Louis B. Mayer Foundation, RT Features and the Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation.