A timid clown and a brutal clown become violent rivals within a struggling Spanish circus during the final years of the Franco dictatorship, their conflict centring on a woman they both desire. The film weaves together grotesque black comedy and visceral horror as the meek clown's wartime trauma gradually transforms him into something monstrous. The story escalates into an increasingly surreal and blood-soaked confrontation that uses the circus setting as a dark metaphor for Spain's turbulent political history.