A wild West family wins a British valet in a poker game and passes him off as a nobleman.

In 1905, on a cricket field outside London, George Van Basingwell, a British gentleman, meets Mrs. Effie Floud, of the American nouveaux riches , and her daughter Agatha, who is beautiful but has coarse manners. George invites the Flouds to a borrowed country estate, because he has none, and hires a troupe of actors to pose as his aristocratic family. George's butler, "Humphrey," is played by American actor Arthur Tyler, who is broke and stranded in London. After repeatedly spilling trays of beverages on his co-star, who is impersonating George's mother, Lady Brinstead, "Humphrey" is fired. Effie then enthusiastically hires him for her estate in Big Squaw, New Mexico, hoping his cultured British demeanor will reform her down-to-earth husband. Mr. Floud misunderstands Effie's note informing him of Humphrey's arrival and tells the townsfolk that an earl is visiting. Humphrey agrees to pose as the earl, while dodging the efforts of Aggie's tough fiancé, Cart Belknap, to kill him for stealing his bride. President Theodore Roosevelt decides to pay Big Squaw a visit in order to meet the earl, and the town hopes that a good impression will win New Mexico a vote for statehood. Arthur, terrified, leaves town, but Aggie goes after him, and after he confesses his real identity, she convinces him to impersonate the earl for the president. The president and the earl get along famously until Arthur agrees to lead a fox hunt, even though he cannot even ride a horse. Aggie teaches him to ride and confesses her love. The next day, while the fox is being rubbed with gravy to entice the "hounds"--a motley mob of local house pets--Arthur feigns a hurt leg to avoid riding a wild horse. Cart smears Arthur's clothes with gravy, and after a chase with the dogs through the house, Cart finds Arthur's acting scrapbook and threatens to expose him. When Roosevelt comes to say good-bye to his good friend the earl, Cart exposes him. Aggie and Arthur are run out of town while driving a handcar on the railroad tracks. Just after Arthur assures Aggie that nothing could pull them apart, a train collides with them in a tunnel and the handcar is cut in half.