In Pawling, Pennsylvania, J. Busby "Buzz" Martin arranges for an airplane to drop fake money as a publicity stunt for Joel Willard's theater. Banker Harlan Darrow is upset by the resulting commotion, and files a complaint with the police. Darrow's secretary, Kay Horner, is also Buzz's girl friend, and she alerts Buzz. Buzz meets with Darrow and promises to build a campaign around the bank's slogan. As Kay and Buzz go to lunch, they pass a pet store with turtles in its window, and Buzz gets an idea for his publicity stunt. Eight turtles will each have a letter painted on its back, spelling "security." The first person to see the turtles line up and spell the word will win $5,000. The stunt is a virtual impossibility, however, because the male turtles constantly circle the female. Buzz then rejects a job with the bank so that he and photographer Herkimer P. "Happy" Hinkle can go live in New York City. Before they leave, a man wins the bank prize, and Buzz and Happy hop a freight train to leave town. Buzz and Happy are unsuccessful in New York until Kay arrives two months later. Kay brainstorms and suggests Buzz try campaigning to sell peanuts as food rather than snacks. With the success of Palmer's Peanuts behind him, Buzz becomes established and hires Kay as his secretary. Buzz then puts together publicity for a beauty book using a model named Iris Randall, and she becomes famous as the "Modern Venus." One night, Buzz returns to his office to find Kay working late, and proposes to her. The next morning, Buzz and Kay are married, but before they can begin their honeymoon, Lon Stanton, a shady operator who brought Iris to Buzz's attention, arrives to pitch a new idea. Stanton wants Buzz to advertise "Dream City," and Iris persuades Buzz to buy the property from Stanton for $80,000. Buzz then sells the first piece of property to Rankin, who orders Buzz to see the district attorney after the transaction is complete because Stanton swindled Buzz by selling him swampland instead of the property he showed Buzz. Kay suggests they make the land into an American Venice, and when Buzz is called before a Grand Jury, he shows them a scale model of the city and the jurors start to buy into the scheme, allowing Kay and Buzz to finally leave for their Venetian honeymoon.