The circus offers an opportunity for distinction and fame. High-stakes performances bring the applause and admiration of a crowd. When young Jacob Jankowski loses his entire family in one day, he feels lost and alone, adrift without a home. Joining the circus offers him a chance to escape his pain and be a part of something larger than himself. When he jumps on board the circus train, he doesn’t expect to find friendship, family, and love: “Is where you’re from the place you’re leaving or where you have roots?” (27) Although his experience entails pain and hardship, circus life becomes rooted in Jacob’s heart and brings him the human connection he needs in his newly orphaned condition. Through the characters of Marlena, Jacob, and Walter, the author explores the universal human need for love and acceptance.

College-educated Jacob doesn’t fit into the circus social climate, and he lives as an outsider for most of the narrative. Welcomed only by Camel, another outcast, Jacob is ostracized as an interloper in the circus world. He finds love and acceptance from the animals for whom he cares, and even when August entertains him in the stateroom, he still feels out of place, lacking the proper clothes for a fancy dinner or night out on the town.