A boy of fourteen, happens upon a stuck circus wagon on the Old Salt Road near Syracuse in 1846. With two draft horses, he helps get it out of the ditch. With this single act of goodwill, Charley White begins his circus career.

He learns from masters how to train animals using kindness and reward. He takes these principles and applies them to leading boys employed by the

circus and later, young men in the Civil War. Charley is badly wounded at Antietam and struggles to reclaim his life. He rises from his sorrow, buys a den of lions and struggles to make a living. One day he receives a telegram from Barnum asking him to join his new show in 1871.

Annie Matchett a young woman from Canada West arrives in Cincinnati in 1861. Here she meets a handsome blue-eyed acrobat. They marry

and tour the northern states during the Civil War with a circus. Annie is widowed in 1869 and left with a seven-year-old son. She knows how to sew and ekes out a living making costumes in Manhattan. In 1871 she is invited to work for Barnum’s newest enterprise.

Annie and Charley fall in love and together, in their own departments, they help to create The Greatest Show on Earth.