Circus owner Larson E. Whipsnade, a shoe-string P. T. Barnum, is pursued by a barrage of sheriffs bearing summonses. One day, Whipsnade's daughter Victoria visits from college and meets ventriloguist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy. While aloft in a hot air balloon, Vickie and Edgar fall in love, but when Vickie learns of her father's dire financial circumstances, she agrees to marry wealthy socialite Roger Bel-Goodie, although she does not love him. As Vickie drives off to wed Roger, Whipsnade cuts the anchor rope to Edgar and Charlie's balloon, sending them aloft. Desperate, the pair parachute to the ground, land in Vickie's speeding car and are all arrested by the police. As the wedding party awaits the tardy bride, Whipsnade arrives in a horse drawn chariot and proceeds to infuriate the snobbish Bel-Goodies with his boorish behavior. After being released on bail, Vickie rushes to the Bel-Goodie mansion to find her prospective in-laws locked in a battle of insults with her father. When the sheriff appears to serve Whipsnade with yet another summons, Vickie, her brother Phineas and father leap into the chariot and speed away, passing a bicycling Edgar. As Vickie shouts to Edgar that she is free to marry him, he peddles his bicycle in pursuit of the chariot.