Marmaduke Ruggles has been valet-butler to the same weak-willed English lord since his teens. He envisions this as his lifelong career—until the terrible day in Paris when the Earl informs him ashamedly that he has lost Ruggles in a game of poker. The next thing the very proper gentleman's gentleman knows, he is on his way to rustic Red Gap, Washington in the company of his new employer "Senator" Floud's wife and her timid cousin Egbert. Ruggles decides that he must make the best of a bad situation and takes it upon himself to civilize all the members of the Floud family. In the meantime, they make a decision of their own: to teach their new servant to loosen up a bit and enjoy life. With the help of an enterprising Red Gap widow, all of them find happiness.