Hoop-La, the beautiful star of Minor's Mammoth Circus, a one-ring affair which tours county fairs and small towns, delights crowds with her bare-back riding, trapeze acts, and clowning. Reared in the confines of the circus by Old Toodles the clown, in accordance with her father's dying request, Hoop-La naively accepts the attentions of good-looking Joe McGee, a cheap horseman, after winning a race for him as a jockey. Tony Barrows, the foppish scion of a wealthy family, falls in love with Hoop-La, but she resents his snobbery and makes faces at him. When Hoop-La learns that her father was wealthy, she secretly marries McGee to save herself from a dull society life, but when she discovers McGee's true character, she promises to keep him supplied with money if he leaves. After Hoop-La goes to live in her own luxurious home, McGee plans to make the marriage known and live with her, but he dies in a tent fire caused by his own drunken debauchery.