Thirty-three-and-a-half hours after Lindbergh left New York, he circles the Eiffel Tower in Paris. A mob is waving and screaming when he reaches the airfield. At first he doesn't realize it is for him. People lose their heads over "Lucky Lindy." He is the world's hero .

In 1927, the year Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis flies the Atlantic, the city of St. Louis is devastated by a tornado. In five minutes, more than one thousand homes are wrecked and eighty-seven people are dead. In another natural disaster, the Mississippi River overflows its banks and causes some $300 million in damage. But this is the Roaring Twenties and tragedies are quickly forgotten by most people. The stock market keeps rising. Financial experts are convinced that something new is happening in America. They say the boom will go on and on. People who own stocks are getting rich and expect to get richer. Everyone wants to buy stocks. It doesn't matter what the stock is. Any stock will do. The stock market balloon gets bigger and bigger. Now, what happens to balloons when they get too big?