Spencer Tracy stars as Jim Carter, a working-class huckster who moves in on an afterlife-themed carnival sideshow. He woos the owner's daughter (Claire Trevor) and helps the old man (Henry B. Walthall) who set the whole thing up grow the business, turning a stodgy scholarly museum into an epic grand guignol-esque attraction. Questionable ethics and dodgy business practices eventually turn that success sour, however, driving away the wife and nearly getting her father killed. Alone and nearly beaten, Carter gets one last shot to redeem himself on his next venture, an ocean-liner dubbed Paradise.
