Old Ezra Perkins, his wife Matilda, and an English gentleman named Reggie take a "rubberneck" sightseeing tour of New York’s Bowery district. Led by a fast-talking guide, the naive visitors are tricked into a series of staged, dangerous scams that include a fake suicide, broken dishes, a sausage machine accident, and a fake murder in a saloon that makes them flee in terror leaving their money behind.