Ninety-something-year-old Jacob Jankowski remembers his time in the circus as a young man during the Great Depression, and his friendship with Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, and Rosie, the elephant, who gave them hope.
In 1940 Paris, 20-year-old Michel Bonnet, to escape the Nazis, joins the circus where he first sees Frieda-dark-haired, mysterious and also fleeing the Germans-who is harboring a secret that places him in more danger than he could ever know.