Having a knack for manipulating people, Stanton Carlisle, a secretive wanderer with a violent past, chances upon a 1930s travelling carnival. In urgent need of cash and a place to stay, Stanton joins the troupe and learns the ropes in Madame Zeena's mind-reading act, determined to catapult himself into the limelight. Taking advantage of his new set of skills, the deceitful spiritualist makes himself indispensable to the unsuspecting, gullible elite until enigmatic psychoanalyst Lilith Ritter draws Carlisle into her dangerous high-wire act. Now, there is no turning back. Can the Great Stanton escape from the dark Nightmare Alley?—Nick Riganas