The film opens with Stan, dragging a body into the floorboards of his home
and then dropping a match to set the entire place on fire
He then takes a bus until it drops him off at a carnival
He watches as the troupe leader Clem Hoatley presents a geek to the audience
The man is advertised as is it a man or a beast before an amused crowd
Clem drops a live chicken down as the Geek comes out
and bites the head of the chicken to the horror and amusement of the crowd
Stan is spotted by other carnies strongest man Bruno
and the world’s smallest man Major Mosquito, who thinks he is up to no good
but Stan ends up getting a job as a carny working with them
After proving himself to be useful,
Clem allows Stan to join them as they make their move to another carnival
On their next job, Stan starts to grow close to one of the carnies
Molly Cahill whose act is to allow electrical charges to run through her body
At one point, Geek flees from his cage, and Stan and Clem have to look for him
The Geek hits Stan over the head with a rock and tries to escape, but Clem stops him
and he retaliates by throwing him down and hitting him over the head
but Clem stops him from killing the man
Stan stays with fellow carny Zeena
whose act is being a clairvoyant to the patrons, along with her husband Pete
later, He helps them with their act,
which sees Zeena pretending to be a medium between herself and the customers
Pete misses a cue because he is drunk so Zeena has to improvise,
but she gets the audience to cheer for her
Meanwhile, Stan tries to come up with a gimmick for Molly where
she is strapped to an electric chair and would allow him to join her act
Bruno knows that, and warns Stan not to hurt her since he promised her father
that he would look after her and he threatens Stan with violence if he does anything to her
Stan spends time with Clem, who shows him the stash of liquor that he has,
but warns him against taking the wood alcohol which is poisonous
After taking the Geek to get medical attention, Clem tells Stan
about how a man becomes a Geek, after being broken and left with nothing to his name
He also shows Stan a collection of oddities he possesses such as a fetus with a third eye
that killed its mother in childbirth
Stan learns some tricks from Zeena and Pete,
after Pete demonstrates his techniques on Stan, by mentioning him wanting the love of his father
Although Pete says this is just a run-of-the-mill trick it does hit Stan,
since he did have a tumultuous relationship with his father
Zeena and Pete warn Stan against putting on a spook show
involving trying to channel the dead in their acts
Stan brings Pete some liquor per his requests
While Pete appears passed out Stan attempts to swipe his little black book of tricks,
but Pete catches him
In the morning, Bruno and Major go to Zeena and tell her something happened to Pete
Everybody runs to the middle of the field
finds Pete dead
having been poisoned although it’s not clear if Stan gave him the wood alcohol on purpose
or by mistake and Zeena wails over his body
while Stan tosses the chicken corpses into a hole in the ground,
he saw four cop cars, coming up the South
he hurries to Clem to tell him that
Clem drags the Geek out of his cage and hides him
while Stan covers the Geek banner with a fake one
The officer says that he got a complaint that there is an illegal performance
emphasizing cruelty to both animal and man
The cops didn't find anything and they leave the Carnival
and later they celebrate with Stan for saving the carnival from stopping
Stan then grows closer to Molly,
and he eventually convinces her to leave the carnival behind and run away with him
Bruno catches them and he starts punching Stan, but Molly holds him off
says she loves him and has agreed to go with him
On their last day, Stan says his farewell to Zeena
He offers her Pete’s book but she declines to take it
Two years later, Stan and Molly have put on an act in New York with him as The Great Stanton
He wears a blindfold and guesses what Molly is holding based on certain signals
During one show, they are approached by psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter
She opts to do the act with Stan herself asking him to guess what is in her clutch
Stan correctly guesses, that she is holding a pistol in there and The crowd applauds
Afterward, Stan speaks to Judge Charles Kimball,
who employed Lilith to see if Stan was the real deal
and Stan claims to be channeling Kimball’s deceased son Julian
He offers to pay Stan handsomely for a private reading, which Molly
says they don’t do, but Stan cannot turn down the opportunity
He goes to Kimball’s house to meet with him and his wife
learns that Julian died in No Man’s Land and claims to feel his presence,
which is enough to convince them of Stan’s abilities
Stan later meets with Lilith in her office
She knows he is a con man, but she is intrigued by his methods
and plans to help him exploit New York’s elite since she has several sessions with them recorded
She also begins sessions with Stan, learning of his guilt in Pete’s death
since he implicitly viewed him as something of a surrogate father figure
It is also shown that Stan was with his father in his final moments, as he made his
father freeze to death and later dumped his body in the house before setting it on fire
Molly calls Bruno, and he arrives to visit her with Major and Zeena
Stan talks with Zeena, who also advises him against doing the spook show
Per Lilith’s suggestions, Stan meets with Kimball and is introduced to Ezra Grindle a
wealthy man who wants to speak to his late wife Dory, who died after suffering a miscarriage
Stan meets Grindle and his loyal assistant named Anderson and he is hooked up to a lie detector
When asked about being a medium, Stan is almost exposed as a liar, until he
manages to make claims related to Dory, which convinces Grindle that he is who he says he is
Stan begins an affair with Lilith
and Molly learns of the affair and packs her bags to leave Stan,
but he catches up to her at the train station, and convinces her to stay
At the Kimball house, Mrs. Kimball has lost her mind
and believes that based on what Stan told her, she will be reunited with Julian
She shoots her husband in the head, before turning the gun on herself
Grindle wishes to see Dory again, so Stan plans with Molly to fake a seance
since Molly slightly resembles Dory based on a sketch he saw
Stan meets Grindle in the cemetery, where he admits to Stan that he abused
women in his lifetime and he feels responsible for what happened to Dory
Molly puts on her outfit and throws fake blood on herself
However, when Grindle gets too close and starts grabbing her Molly backs out
Grindle becomes angered and strikes Molly, before threatening Stan
Stan responds by punching Grindle to death,
hitting him hard enough to break his nose clean off
Anderson comes out in response,
but Stan and Molly begin driving away and Stan runs Anderson over twice killing him
When they get away, Molly leaves Stan for good
Stan returns to Lilith’s office, where she reveals
that she was scamming him and taking all the money he was collecting from Grindle
She shoots Stan in the ear, and when he attacks her she gets the police to come
Stan flees, before he is caught and runs to a train
A few years pass
Stan is now homeless, broke and a full-blown alcoholic
He ends up at another carnival where he speaks to the boss
tries to offer himself to do the clairvoyant act, but the boss turns him away
He does offer Stan a drink and a job at being the new geek
Stan says he was born for it and he begins
to laugh through his sobs