Carefree vagabond Johnny Rutledge lives in a small town after his medicine show employer and friend Professor Mordecai Ford is arrested.

He befriends a young girl named May Chalotte and her older brothers January ("Jan"), February ("Feb") and twins March and April.

He works on a farm during the week and sings and waits tables on Sunday in a restaurant owned by Jericho Schlosser to provide for the children.

(He had worked to drag himself out of poverty to half-ownership of a paper mill, only to have his partner abscond with all the company funds, so he gave up being a responsible citizen.)

Plato Cassin, Gilland's lawyer, finds out about the children's parents and blackmails Johnny into agreeing to marry one of his older, spinster sisters, Genevieve and Adelaide, in order to keep the kids.

Johnny sings a number of songs in the film, including "Wait 'Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" in blackface in the opening scene.