Max is a hard drinker. His wife is a hard worker. Bob emulates Max in courting John Barleycorn and the two are hale companions. Max's wife sets the temperance union workers upon her thirsty husband. Max is incorrigible and the temperance people give up in disgust. A circus comes to town. The town people attend with the exception of Max and Bob, who are too busy with the demon rum. During the show trouble brews. The tent catches fire and the audience, show people and animals all run out. Max and Bob are "four sheets in the wind" when an elephant forces its way into the saloon. Both men think they have the D.T.'s and beat it. Once in the street they come face to face with a bear. They turn in another direction and the snake charmer, her pet coiled around her, falls upon Max's neck. When he breaks wildly away from her, he encounters the human skeleton. More dead than alive, Max reaches home with Bob and both sign the pledge of the temperance union.