Summary
A decaying carnival's survival hinges on institutionalized theft until destiny intervenes via a stranded aristocrat. Jack Hamilton's fortuitous breakdown near Crump's Colossal Combined Carnival Show sparks an unlikely takeover, transforming the grifting operation into legitimate spectacle. His romance with enigmatic ticket-taker Gypsy unravels a tapestry of stolen lineage when fortune-teller Carlotta reveals the girl's kidnapping from high society. The subsequent collision of circus grit and Park Avenue pretension exposes civilization's thin veneer as Gypsy endures her biological parents' cruel refinement. Hamilton's daring reclamation of his wildflower bride at the stroke of legal emancipation culminates in a triumph of authentic love over inherited hierarchies.
Synopsis
Crump's Colossal Combined Carnival Show barely survives financially by hiring thieves and pickpockets to rob customers. One day, clubman Jack Hamilton buys the circus when his car breaks down on his way to meet a deadline to avoid bankruptcy and he needs the circus tractor to haul his auto out of a ditch. Hamilton leads the circus to financial success and falls in love with Gypsy, the ticket-taker. To convince Jack to marry Gypsy, her supposed mother, fortune-teller Carlotta, says that she was kidnapped as a baby and shows Jack a photo in which he recognizes Gypsy's mother as the wife of Andrew Pomeroy, the financier who ruined him. Gypsy's subsequent life with her real parents is miserable since they find her lack of manners offensive and try to get her to marry a cousin, but Jack rescues her, and the minute she turns 18 he marries her with the Pomeroys' belated consent.
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