Sold into captivity, artistically disfigured to become an object of amusement for the English nobility, the child Gwynplaine grows into manhood as a traveling entertainer, in love with the blind girl Dea, who is incapable of comprehending his monstrous appear-ance. But his true past arises to change his life completely, and open to him a world far uglier than any mere external countenance can display.