In Paris at the dawn of the 20th century, the Earl of Burnstead (Roland Young) accidentally loses his faithful valet, Ruggles (Charles Laughton), to gauche American rancher Egbert Floud (Charlie Ruggles) in a drunken late-night poker game. Resettled in the Wild West town of Red Gap, Washington, Ruggles' proper bearing leads him to become mistaken for a British aristocrat and military hero, to the potential embarrassment of Egbert's snobbish wife, Effie (Mary Boland).