Carew, a street orphan, becomes weary of her prosaic life with an unprincipled guardian who is always in trouble with the police, so she runs away and joins the circus. She observes that Blanche Payson, who is scheduled to make a parachute drop from Joseph Belmont's flying machine, does not appear. Without warning, Miss Carew decides to do the drop, and in a few moments is high in the air. When Mr. Belmont cuts the parachute loose, the frightened little girl is dropped to the ground. She reaches the ground unhurt and the circus manager gives her a chance to learn to ride a horse and to do trapeze work. The aviator falls in love with Miss Carew. One day when her guardian, Andy Anderson, comes to the circus and recognizes the ringmaster as an old friend, complications follow in which the girl is stolen. She escapes, however, and returns to the circus. Various episodes of circus life are shown and the girl is finally rescued from her pursuers by her lover, Belmont, the aviator.