Circus owner Matt Masters is beset by disasters as he attempts a European tour of his circus. At the same time, he is caught in an emotional bind between his adopted daughter and her mother.

Matt Masters, an American circus impresario in the early 1900's, decides to take his circus and Wild West Show to Europe, with the ulterior motive of finding Lili Alfredo, mother of Toni, the young circus performer whom Matt has protected since Lili's disappearance 14 years earlier. Lili had been married to an aerialist though in love with Matt; and when her husband fell to his death, it was rumored that he committed suicide because of Lili's unfaithfulness. The troupe puts on a show aboard the circus boat in Barcelona; when a performer falls overboard, the huge audience surges to the railing, causing the ship to capsize. No lives are lost, but the circus is destroyed. Matt, Toni, and Steve McCabe, Toni's boyfriend, join a touring Wild West Show and are a great success. Matt plans to put together another show and rehearse it in Spain during the winter before touring. In Madrid, Lili turns up in the audience and later tells Matt that Toni is better off not knowing about her mother. Later, Lili asks for a job in the circus, but she is still determined to keep her identity a secret, until Tojo, a clown, tells Toni about Lili and about her father's suicide. Toni becomes hysterical and is about to confront Lili in hatred when Matt stops her and tells her that her mother was refused a divorce by her father. A fire breaks out, and Toni and Lili, scaling a rope to the top of the tent, save the major part of the big top from burning. When the fire is extinguished, Lili and Toni embrace; and at the opening of the circus the next night, the two perform an aerial act. At the end, Matt and Lili marry, and Toni and Steve also marry.