Led by the itinerant carnival vendor dealer Ursus, Gwynplaine joins a traveling troupe with blind girl Dea and becomes the most famous clown in Europe. His fame, however, soon leads him to corruption and confusion. Set in seventeenth-century England, the work criticizes the state of society in which social justice and humanity have been eroded, and sheds light on the value of human dignity and equality through Gwynplaine's journey.

"A rich man's paradise is a poor man's hell."