Cheapskate circus owner Larson E. Whipsnade (W.C. Fields) has a habit of skipping out on his bills, with the result that he has an entire posse of sheriffs and bill collectors following him from town to town. When his beautiful daughter, Victoria (Constance Moore), visits her father's circus, she falls in love with ventriloquist "The Great Edgar" (Edgar Bergen), but her sense of duty to her father presses her to accept an engagement to stuffy rich boy Roger Bel-Goodie (James Bush).