One summer in Cook, Nebraska, a group of part-time pilots decide to recreate a 1920s-style "barnstorming" flying tour. Calling themselves the "Great Flying Circus," they travel the American Midwest giving rides for three dollars and talking to the small-town characters they encounter. During their travels they meet an old man who is convinced that tornadoes are being generated because the astronauts landed on the moon, and a small boy who is willing to spend an entire day washing the planes for a few minutes of flying. Along the way, the men rediscover small-town America.