The story of American showman P.T. Barnum, founder of the circus that became the famous traveling Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

An ambitious carnival man with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words hooks up with a female psychologist who is even more dangerous than he is.

The Cavalcade of Perversion, a traveling freak show, acts as a front for Divine, who is out for blood after discovering her lover's affair.

The uncle of an executed murderess relates four stories of his hometown, Oldfield, to a reporter. In the first, an elderly man pursues a romance with a younger woman, even to the grave and beyond. In the second, a wounded man on the run from creditors is rescued by a backwoods hermit who holds the secret to eternal life. In the third, a glass-eating carny pays the ultimate price for looking for love on the outside. And in the fourth, a group of Civil War soldiers are held captive by a household of orphans with strange intentions for them.

A mad scientist (Donald Pleasence) crosses plants with people, and the results wind up in a sideshow.

In Madrid, during a popular festival, Don Paco, the owner of a freak show called The Palace of Wonders, has to deal with the demands of Levinsky, a sinister character who apparently has something to hide…

Michael Grade reveals the story of General Tom Thumb, the world's first global show business celebrity who went from humble beginnings in America to international superstardom.