It's 1920 and Ottawa's own Bartholomew Bandy is back from the War To End All Wars. Now he's off to New York to turn his experience as a flying ace into commercial success. While starting an airline with one giant Vickers Vimy bomber, our hero falls in love with Cissie Chaffington, the beanpole daughter of the tycoon Cyrus Q. Chaffington, last seen hectoring Prime Minister Meighen in Ottawa. To add to the perils of stunt flying over and under the Brooklyn Bridge, Bandy's life is complicated by the arrival of Dasha, escaped from Russia and eager to make a splash with his dollars.

As always our man Bandy hobnobs with the great and famous (holding his own at the Algonquin Round Table, not to mention conversing with W.C. Fields) and even comes close to being a silent movie star. But other careers lie in store for the irrepressible lad from the Ottawa Valley, who continues to disappoint his parents by refusing to go back to medical school and settle down with a nice girl. Whether that will be Cissie - who shares in some of the funniest sex scenes ever recorded - remains to be seen.