At an animal shelter in Monroe, Illinois, Jim Dodge delivers a monologue about his imagined exploits to a group of dogs, prompting his boss, Hubie Marshall, to fire him. Afterward, Jim explains his unemployment to three younger boys, claiming he invented the “artificial cow heart,” but now seeks a new enterprise after selling his animal hospital to pay delinquent taxes. While Jim begs a former employer for work, his father, Bud Dodge, appears in his cement mixer and berates the young man for losing yet another job. In the morning, Bud drives Jim to a low-price department store to apply for a janitorial position. Bud warns that if Jim fails to secure this job, he will be sent to St. Louis, Missouri, to work in a relative’s garden supply store. Jim enters the office of manager C. D. Marsh, who mistakes the young man for a prospective operations chief, offering him a generous salary and benefits package. Realizing his error, Marsh hires Jim as “night clean-up boy” at meager wages with no benefits. Meanwhile, millionaire Roger Roy McClellan confers with state officials Bob Bosenbeck and Dave Hockner about building an automotive plant. McClellan's daughter, Josie, enters and intentionally embarrasses her father by behaving in a seductive manner toward the officials. She spends the afternoon shoplifting at the store where Jim Dodge works, while Jim hires a limousine to drive him to work, imagining himself as the store’s future owner. As the store is about to close, Jim is greeted by the shotgun-toting custodian, who dispenses detailed instructions, then locks him inside until 7:00 the next morning. Once Jim is alone, he illuminates the darkened store and quickly completes his duties, after which he amuses himself with a variety of merchandise. At the Dodge home, Bud admits to his wife, Dotty, that he should be helping Jim find a suitable career, rather than forcing him to accept menial work. While rollerskating through the store, Jim is surprised by Josie and crashes into a pantyhose display. She reveals that she was shoplifting and fell asleep inside a fitting room. When asked why the richest girl in town would shoplift, Josie explains her actions as a failed attempt to rebel against her abusive, authoritarian father. While Jim and Josie feast on reheated frozen dinners, Roger Roy McClellan searches the town for his daughter, accompanied by Officer Don of the Monroe Police Department. After dinner, Jim is upset when Josie informs him of his reputation as the “town liar,” and he asks if she agrees with the characterization. Josie confesses that she knows little about Jim, even though they attended the same schools. Jim recalls his miserable high school years, while Josie remarks on the declining quality of her life since graduation. When Jim states his preference for living with his parents, Josie accuses him of being dishonest with himself, especially where his love life is concerned. Both lament their inability to break free from their families, admitting they are afraid to be alone. Josie expresses her desire to live in Los Angeles, California. She produces $52,000 from her purse, inviting Jim to join her, and offers to compensate Jim for ignoring him all through school. He recalls a tenth-grade dance, during which students were required to change partners, and asks to finish the brief dance he had with Josie. Their ensuing attempt to make love in a pup tent is interrupted by Officer Don, knocking on the store window in search of Josie. Jim convinces the policeman he is alone, and Officer Don assures Jim that the custodian will not return before morning. As Jim and Josie race through the store on roller skates, they collide with Nestor Pyle and Gil Kinney, a pair of robbers responsible for the recent murder of a store clerk, knocking them unconscious. Jim and Josie take refuge in a fitting room, but are soon discovered. When Nestor Pyle asks their identities, Jim claims to be the liaison for a $60 million sale of illegal narcotics, and Josie is his hostage. He convinces Nestor and Gil they are surrounded by armed drug dealers, and seizes the robbers’ weapons. Upon realizing that Jim was lying, Nestor retrieves their weapons by claiming they are unloaded, then fires a shot to prove he is also lying. While being marched to the concession stand at gunpoint, Jim and Josie concoct a plan in which Josie will ally herself with the robbers and return later for Jim after she gets away. She gains Nestor’s confidence by flirting with him, then fills a shopping cart with heavy sports equipment. As Nestor and Gil struggle to load the merchandise into their car, Josie takes the wheel and drives away. When the criminals return to the store, Jim frightens them into submission with the custodian’s shotgun. As the sun rises, Josie returns with Officer Don, who finds Nestor and Gil bound to patio chairs. Jim impresses his young friends as he drives through town with Josie in her father’s Cadillac. Sometime later, Jim and Josie sit poolside in Hollywood, California, and Jim imagines himself as the community’s future owner.