When a gold-digging singer, Flower Belle Lee (Mae West), is kidnapped by a masked bandit, the town goes wild with speculation. When she returns unharmed, and is later seen kissing the bandit, she is tried by a judge and thrown out of town. On a train she meets a con man, Cuthbert J. Twillie (W.C. Fields). Mistaking him for a wealthy man, Lee marries him on the spot. From there the two engage in a series of petty cons and deceits that bring Twillie ever closer to the gallows.