The scene is East Texas, Lansdale country. Loner, loser and sometime armed robber Bill Roberts says goodbye to his dead momma in the back room after a bungled raid on a fireworks stand, escapes through a bug-infested swamp, and finds refuge in a traveling freak show. Among the pinheads, pumpkin heads, bearded ladies, and dog-men, no one is more welcoming than the ringmaster's scheming young wife. Here, in a world as ominous as its main attraction - the mysterious frozen man whose presence haunts the troupe - our "hero" will take one last desperate lunge at life's elusive brass ring ... as Joe R. Lansdale breaks one of society's last taboos.