Liliom, a merry-go-round barker at a Budapest amusement park, becomes enamored of Julie, a servant girl, and though under the influence of Madame Muskat, a sideshow entrepreneur, he marries the girl. Although he has not been a good provider, Liliom is spurred into action by the discovery that his wife is pregnant and eventually is influenced by his friend Buzzard, to rob a bank cashier so that he can take Julie to America. The plan goes wrong, and rather than be caught, Liliom kills himself and is carried by a celestial express to heaven. En route, he is accosted by the Chief Magistrate and is accorded another chance of ten years on Earth. When he returns, Julie does not know him, and resents his frantic attempts to enter her garden. Time demonstrates that promises of reform are useless, and he is returned to the heavenly train, where the Chief Magistrate convinces him that he can make his wife and daughter happy only by leaving them with cherished memories.