Billy, a spirit in Heaven, begs the starkeeper for a visit to earth to help his teenage daughter understand his death and prepare for her graduation. Billy was an impetuous circus barker living in a New England fishing village who fell in love with and married a cotton mill worker named Julie. Unable to find a job outside the circus, he had planned to take part in a robbery, although he later repented and was killed while trying to prevent it. Billy sets things right with his daughter before returning to the Great Beyond.