"Chick" Thompson is a puppet-master in a traveling carnival whose wife dies in childbirth and leaves him with an infant son he names "Poochy." His father-in-law and the baby's grandfather sues him for custody of the baby and Chick takes his son and hides out for a couple of years. He joins his former assistants, Daisy and "Fingers", in a circus act only to find that the persistent grandfather is still on his trail.

A magic lamp lets a young couple become kids again and exposes a mean old man who runs his orphanage like a prison.

Just as Charlie is running for mayor on a purity platform, an old flame threatens to show his torrid love letters to his wife if he does not withdraw from the campaign.