When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie where he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act and Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.