On a hot night in Dixie, the local shanty tramp heads out for adventure and leaves disaster in her wake. The lust she excites in the local men leads to fights, murders, lynch mobs, ruined reputations, and broken homes.

Melvin Byrd, who dreams of being a scientist, is a Cape Kennedy "miniscule molecular particle surveillance monitor" - in short, a janitor. His job is to keep a major rocket project completely dust-free, and this he does with his own hilariously fantastic inventions - including a literal attack on dirt by a "knight on a white horse". In his work, he meets Judy, a chimp involved in a top-secret project, which leads Melvin into the one room strictly off-limits to him. Not until he has entered the project room does Melvin learn that any man entering it will be negatively ionized - making him fly like a bird.