Raised on opposite shores of Lake Ontario in the mid-19th century, two talented young adults begin their journey toward becoming key players in the birth and success of P.T. Barnum's "Greatest Show on Earth."

A young man's destiny

When fourteen-year-old Charley White stops to help with a crippled circus wagon in upstate New York, he has no idea that his act of kindness will alter the course of his life forever. He joins the show for just that one summer, intending to go home again at the end of the season, but he never does.

As the boy grows into a man, he will go from commanding animals to commanding men in a war within a torn nation. But, as the country recovers, Charley's own journey toward healing comes from returning to the life he loved not so long ago.

A young woman's search for a new life

Newly un-engaged eighteen-year-old Anna Matchett is determined to start afresh in the US. As she sets off from Canada West for New Orleans, little does she know her journey will be derailed in Cincinnati as rumors of war begin to spread.
Low on funds, the young woman uses her talent for sewing to make a living, until one day she fashions a costume for a handsome blue-eyed acrobat. Falling madly in love, Anna finds herself traveling off with her new husband and the little circus, earning a reputation as a talented seamstress.

The dawn of "The Greatest Show on Earth"

Planning a new circus unlike any other, revolutionary showman P.T. Barnum is determined to recruit the industry's best talent. And with that, Charley White receives a telegram, Anna Matchett gets a referral, and the rest is history.