In the 1920s, song-and-dance man August La May, formerly known as Avram Landenberg of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, thought he was living a grand life on the Orpheum Circuit in vaudeville, traveling the country with his gal Violetta and daughters April and Florabelle. Even after Violetta deserts the act and breaks his heart, he continues the act with his children, still bringing down the house while billed as "The Three La Mays."

But four years after Violetta left, all might not be well. August is sure he sees Violetta on the theater ticket line in Chicago. Later that day, seven-year-old Florabelle goes missing on the way to the stage from her dressing room. Is this a coincidence? Has Violetta really returned for only one of her daughters, or has someone else in vaudeville taken the talented child? Who, among the many rather irregular folks in show business, might have done this? August and his other daughter, savvy little April, keep touring the theaters of America, determined to find out. Where then, in the space of the entire country, could Florabelle possibly be?