The story takes place in a circus that is managed by "Papa" Briquet and his wife Zinida. At the beginning of the play a stranger approaches the manager of the circus and asks to hire him as a clown. Even if he doesn't have any experience, he convinces him to give him the job. Other characters are Consuelo, "the equestrian tango queen" HE falls in love with, her instructor Bezano, "the bareback rider" Consuelo is in love with, Count Mancini, who regards himself as Consuelo's father, a lustful and rich Baron, Regnard, to whom Mancini is trying to give his daughter away in marriage.

Later in the play HE is visited by a mysterious gentleman who is now living with HE's wife. The gentleman complains about an insulting letter that HE wrote to his wife when he left home. HE mocks him and in this monologue we find out HE used to be an inventor and the gentleman stole his ideas, publishing a book that made him famous while nobody knows HE. HE accuses him of being an impostor who not only stole his wife and children but his career as well.