When the sheriff of Flat River, Missouri forecloses on Ira Skitch's house because the bank loaned Ira's money to people who couldn't repay it, Perry, the wealthy beau of Ira's daughter Emily, who had put on airs to show that she was well-to-do, breaks a date with her, which upsets her greatly. Vowing to return someday and buy back his home, Ira takes his family, consisting of his wife Maddie, Emily, his young twin daughters, Winnie and Minnie, whom he continually mixes up, young son, Little Ira, who takes everything he says literally, and their dog, to California, where, Ira hopes, he can get work. After barely making it in their old jalopy over the Rocky Mountains, the Skitches meet Florence Desmond, an English actress on her way to Hollywood to break into the movies. Ira gives Flo enough "petrol" to get her car started, then realizes that his own car is out of gas. At Yellowstone National Park, Emily, still upset about losing Perry, goes off alone to swim. Harvey Denby, a West Point cadet, who is traveling with his uncle, a military officer, on an inspection tour of national parks, admires Emily from afar via a surveyor's telescope, then rescues her as she unexpectedly steps into an area earlier dredged. He invites her to have a lemonade at the hotel and tries to flirt, but she shies away. Meanwhile, Ira, determined to get money for his family even if he has to steal it, comes upon Sam Cohen, who is traveling by trailer for his health. By talking tough and taking out a knife, Ira scares Cohen into washing his own car and paying Ira for the job. When Flo arrives at the camp, Cohen invites her to dinner. Meanwhile, a bear disrupts Maddie's cooking and eats the family's food. Ira then invites himself and his family to eat with Cohen. At the Grand Canyon, Ira tries to learn the encyclopedic facts about it from Winnie and Minnie, who constantly quote from a guidebook, and he decides to try to make money as a guide. Trying to find Emily, who has given him the impression that her family was well-off, Harvey asks Ira for information about a well-to-do family from Missouri with a pretty daughter, and Ira brings him to their auto camp, where Emily is embarrassed when Harvey sees that her family is poor and without a home. To make her feel better, Harvey says that his mother is a fish peeler from Hoboken. At Calneva, California, Ira gets a job as an "English" waiter at a swanky gambling club across the Nevada border. Ira becomes chums with a man named Cliff Merriweather, who takes a drink in honor of the various states of the Union whenever a particular state is mentioned. Ira gets drunk with Merriweather and wins three thousand dollars at the crap table. He gives Maddie some of the money to buy new clothes for herself and the children and plans to use the rest to buy back his house. After Maddie says that it is sad he didn't win four hundred dollars more, so they could buy a new Buick and drive back into town in style, Ira loses all the money trying to win the additional money, and the clothes have to be returned. Harvey, however, secretly gives Cohen money to finance an auto camp run by the Skitches back in Flat River. At Harvey and Emily's wedding, with the whole town in attendance, Ira advises Harvey about marriage and promises to pay him back. Maddie proudly reminds Emily that she is still a "Skitch" as the happy couple leaves. Cohen and Flo then arrive and show that they have married. Maddie wishes them to be as happy as she herself is.
