The owner and ringmaster of a traveling circus blames everyone but himself for the circus' troubles. He is especially hard on his stepdaughter Merna, one of the circus riders. A poor and starving Tramp comes into the realm of the circus solely as means to get away from the police as he is mistaken for a pickpocket working the carnival midway, the Tramp who unwittingly has on his possession one of the stolen wallets. As the Tramp and his pursuers enter into the circus ring during the middle of a performance, the audience mistakenly believes he is one of the circus clowns. As such, he becomes the biggest hit of the show. Believing the Tramp the panacea for the circus' financial problems, the ringmaster wants to hire him as a clown without really telling him how valuable an asset he would be to the show to get his employ for as cheaply as possible. Another problem may be the Tramp trying to figure out in a scripted act what made his impromptu first appearance so funny. Through his stay with the circus, he and Merna becomes friends, he wanting to be her protector from her stepfather. As he starts to fall for her, she starts to fall for Rex, the circus' new tightrope walker. The Tramp starts to fight for Merna's affections in the only way he knows how - by becoming a tightrope walker himself.