Calamity Jane (Jane Russell) is working undercover for the U.S. government, trying to capture a gunrunner named Terris (Robert Armstrong) in exchange for a pardon for her previous misdoings. But when Jane's partner is killed, she takes up with bumbling dentist Painless Peter Potter (Bob Hope) and passes him off as a gifted gunslinger. When Jane is captured by a tribe of Native Americans, however, Potter finds that he actually has to play the hero that Jane has painted him to be.