A "Mr. Dawson," the owner of a big circus playing in Metropolis, is in Perry White's office explaining his tale of woe: the circus will have to close in a week if someone doesn't recover the stolen money from his business. The police haven't been able to solve the case....but Clark Kent is thinking, so you know he'll come up with some solution.
Meanwhile, we quickly see who the crooks are: a pair of "performers" in the circus: "the world's greatest escape artist" and "the world's greatest human fly," the idea being these two get go into the safe-cracking business when it involves more than robbing something on the first floor. With the money they've already stolen from Dawson's safe, they are ready to go into their own business, robbing safes that are 17 stories up and more.
Can Superman foil their plans and enable the circus to keep going? Well, en route to the end of this story we see a bunch of twists and turns - none of which are credible - but are fun to watch, such as Superman being arrested, Jimmy Olsen fitted for a straight-jacket and locked in a trunk, and the appearance of "Atlas, the world's strongest (and dumbest) person."
The crooks in these Superman shows were always entertaining. Most of the time they were really stupid but at least in this episode, the main thug was pretty smart. Ah, but "greed" is a dangerous sin.