Roy Arnie (Woody Harrelson) has a dream. One day he will run his own circus and conquer the world. Today, however, he is a stable-hand working in the Circus Stromowski, a miserable Russian big top, run by a hopeless alcoholic fourth generation circus director, Igor Stromowski, and full of useless has-beens and tired animals, which will only perform under the influence of narcotics. Roy Arnie invites his old buddies Gaz and Odd, and their sidekick Flea, to come and work at the circus, and while work is an alien concept to Gaz and Odd, the appearance of an irate criminal who they are indebted to decides the issue. At the circus, Roy Arnie introduces the trio to the star attraction: Jimmy the elephant. Formerly a great sight, but after 20 years at the circus he has become addicted to every drug under the sun. He performs in a purple haze, counting down the days until someone realises he will be more useful as a set of piano keys. Roy Arnie keeps him going with a complex regime of uppers and downers to make him energetic for performances and docile the rest of the time. If the mixture is wrong, either there would be several tons of rampaging elephant or a sleep walking act. Jimmy is the key to Roy Arnies dreams. The elephant carries a secret, a secret of enough value to bankroll Roy Arnies circus. All he has to do is to free Jimmy and his dreams will come true. Yet, it is not as easy as it sounds. Roy Arnies dreams are jeopardised when the elephant is locked up for going on a drug induced rampage, then escapes and runs away to the moors. Militant animal rights activists also want to free Jimmy from the tyranny of abuse. To further complicate matters, the meanest men in the north, the Lappish Mafia, are also keen to free Jimmy so that they can get their hands on the elephants secret. An epic farcical journey ensues where the stoners, the vegans and the mobsters, joined by an alcohol fuelled hunting party all compete to capture the drugged up Jimmy. Now the only thing that can thwart their plans is a strangely compassionate moose.