Fleeing from the twin horrors of prospective marriage and the baleful Aunt Agatha, Bertie sails to New York with Jeeves, where he hopes to lie low but instead he is charged with minding the ultra-shy mother's boy Wilmot, son of Lady Malvern, and showing him the high life. Oddly enough Wilmot takes only too well to the night-spots of Manhattan, wearing Bertie out in the process. Tuppy Glossop also arrives, to talk about car exportation with wealthy businessman Mr. Stoker. Unfortunately Tupper's business plan is nowhere near as lofty as it should be.

Bertie is faced with problems. One is how to allow the indolent 'Bicky' Bickersteth to remain in Manhattan and still receive an allowance from his luxury-hating father, the Duke of Chiswick. The other involves reclusive poet Rocky, who lives an austere life in a cabin in the country, which inspires his verse. His aunt Isabel wants him to move to the big city and send her his impressions of the night-life there, which is anathema to him. There is a solution, of course, which involves a little mutual aid, but until Jeeves sorts it out, it's Bertie who finds himself living in neither one place nor the other.

The latest misfit whom Aunt Agatha has short-sightedly ordered Bertie to take under his wing is Cyril Bassington-Bassington, a young aristocrat whose mother has sent him across the Atlantic to cure him of his obsession with the theatre. It is the worst thing she could have done. Cyril goes to a Broadway show, gets involved with a chorus girl and becomes a star of the musical theatre himself touring across the States. Bertie also has to help portrait painter Corky with his love problems.

Bossy Aunt Agatha orders Bertie to go to Deverill Hall and woo Gertrude Winkworth. Gussie Fink-Nottle is due to go to the hall to impress Dame Daphne, Gertrude's mother and godmother to his beloved Madeleine Bassett. When Gussie is arrested for trying to catch newts in Trafalgar Square fountain, Bertie sees the chance to obey Agatha by going to the hall and also save the day for Gussie by impersonating him. When Gussie eventually turns up he has to pretend to be Bertie. Gertrude is captivated by him, romance blooms and Gussie writes to Madeleine to end their relationship. Bertie's efforts to retrieve the letter leads to his arrest and, worse, the attentions of Madeleine before Jeeves rescues him yet again.

Jeeves does not approve of Bertie's new betrothed, bossy Lady Florence Craye - author of 'Strength Through Willpower', particularly when, during a weekend party at Totleigh Court, she orders Bertie to steal and destroy Sir Watkyn Bassett's memoirs,whose publication could cause large scale embarrassment. Wooster steals the manuscript and gives it to Jeeves, who, as always, knows best. Suffice to say, the engagement is soon over. Jeeves is more sympathetic to Gussie Fink-Nottle, when Stiffy Byng, by whom he is captivated, persuades him to retrieve her dog,who has bitten and been confiscated by P.C. Oates during rehearsals for the annual village variety show.

Wearing a false beard, Bingo Little pretends to be a friend of the workers to impress Charlotte Corday Rowbotham, daughter of a socialist orator, to the disgust of her other admirer Comrade Butt. Fortunately Jeeves is on hand to scupper Bingo's romance, leading to a free-for-all at the races but Bertie has a bigger problem. In order to get in with novelist Cornelia Fothergill whose stories she wants to publish in her magazine, Aunt Dahlia charges Bertie to steal a hated painting by Mrs. Fothergill's father-in-law which has long blighted her marriage. Bertie is, of course, a hopeless thief, and, somewhat surprisingly, the fearsome Spode comes to his rescue - along with Jeeves of course.