Traveling sign painter Joe Buck, whose ambition is to rise to the top and marry a beautiful "dame" whose father owns a railroad, considers himself an artist. With his partner Lucky, Joe arrives at the Brown farm where he convinces hostile Pa Brown to let him paint a huge ad on his barn for "Beauty Magic for the Forgotten Woman" in exchange for a phony watch. Madge, the Brown's naïve and sheltered ward who is to marry the Brown's son Jim, admires Joe's painting and independence. After Jim captures Madge's pet lamb, Joe knocks out Jim and drives off with Lucky only to discover Madge and the lamb hiding in their truck. Jim and Pa chase them to Circleville, where a carnival is in progress. After Joe buys Madge a dress and takes her away from a designing fortune-teller, Professor Triplett, Joe kisses Madge goodnight on her cheek. The kiss moves to Madge's lips, and Joe says he's "daffy" about her. Just then, Pa and Jim, accompanied by the Circleville sheriff, arrive, and when they threaten Joe with a penitentiary sentence for spending the night with a minor after crossing state lines, Madge says she will marry Jim if the charges are dropped. Joe and Lucky leave for New York, and Ma Brown, seeing Madge crying, gives her money to follow Joe. In New York, Joe has to paint a massive portrait of celebrity Sharon Hadley atop the city roofs to advertise a beauty product. Although he seems interested in Sharon's flirtations, he paints Madge's picture instead. Madge, meanwhile, wanders through the city, and she is lured by Triplett to his apartment, where she sees her face in the sky through Triplett's telescope. She escapes, hides in Joe's truck again, and as Joe and Lucky drive off, tells a happy Joe that she has come to marry him.