The Thunder & Shield Travelling Carnival exists to bring joy and merriment to small towns across the United States. But that is not its only purpose. Within the carnival is a small group of men who carry on its more charitable pursuits. These are no ordinary men; Mr. Atlas, the carnival’s owner and strongman, can bend railroad spikes with his bare hands; Saul, the show magician, wields a power that has little to do with sleight of hand; and Carny, the tattooed son of a gypsy fortune teller, has a strange and mysterious ability that is yet to be truly understood. These men will help anyone who has nowhere else to turn, and they are quite capable at the task. But, after arriving in a small town in upstate Ohio during the late winter of 1955, the carnival men are tested like never before. A young girl is in danger, and what at first seems to be simply a case of child abuse, is soon revealed to be an evil plot of devilish proportions. With the little girl’s life hanging in the balance, the strongman, the magician, and the gypsy, must face impossible odds to stop a throng of evil men and their thralls from completing a terrible rite.