John Chatters, a poor farm labourer from the small village of Belchamp Otten in the county of Essex, travels to London to seek a better life. There he marries and his daughter, Kate Chatters, finds fame as a music hall entertainer, abandoning her father to the workhouse. Her daughter, Lily Knight, marries Jack Selbini, a pioneer of trick cycling in the days of the old "bone shaker" and together they form the Selbini Troupe who go on to achieve worldwide success. Their daughter, Lalla Selbini, also enters show business and she becomes even more famous than her parents. She receives notoriety as a risque vaudeville performer in New York and she later becomes a magician, taking over the company from the illusionist, The Great Lafayette, who dies tragically in a fire in Edinburgh.