New Yorkers Skip Donahue and Harry Monroe have no jobs and no prospects, so they decide to flee the city and find work elsewhere, landing jobs wearing woodpecker costumes to promote the opening of a bank. When their feathery costumes are stolen and used in a bank robbery, they no longer have to worry about employment — they're sent to prison.

Darlene, a single mom and flat-broke chambermaid in a ramshackle Carson City, NV hotel receives a quarter for a tip. "A lousy quarter", she says. As she's soon to find out, both it and she are lousy...with luck.