Circuses and parades go wildly awry when James Sauerbaugh joins a band of Shriners as a substitute trombonist. The band members are ancient and bombed out of their minds, but James comes to relish the friendships and wild fun on the bus and on parade floats. When Moses Grand, a fellow trombonist, rescues him from death at the hands of a ruthless killer, the story takes an ironic twist. Nobody can have enough books with circuses and parades in them.