Dresses, lipsticks, sex - the "perversions" (and neuroses) of Eve, a young, very successful lawyer. Her days are a tightrope act between extreme eloquence and frosty toughness on the one side, and scaring vulnerability on the other. The climax of her career shall be the possibly forthcoming appointment as a judge, but this step seems to be interrupted by her kleptomanian sister Mad who is arrested after one of her raids. Eve travels to Mad's town to stand by her in the jail. Their struggle about Mad's illness evokes suppressed conflicts. Eve stays at her sister's flat where she meets a girl that fights with its budding femininity.

Charlie's Tramp character finds himself at a circus where he is promptly gets chased around by the police who think he is a pickpocket. Running into the bigtop, he is an accidental sensation with his hilarious efforts to elude the police. The ringmaster/owner immediately hires him, but discovers the Tramp cannot be funny on purpose, so he takes advantage of the situation by making the Tramp a janitor just happens to always in the Bigtop at showtime. Unaware of this exploitation, the Tramp falls for the owner's lovely acrobatic daughter, who is abused by her father. His chances seem good, until a dashing rival comes in and Charlies feels he has to compete with him.