Plot
In 1939, Stan Carlisle hides the corpse of his deceased father under the floorboards of a run-down house before setting the house ablaze. That evening, he walks into a traveling carnival and watches a geek show in which a deranged man eats a live chicken. Stan runs into the carnival's strongman, and is offered a temporary job for the night. He is subsequently convinced by carnival owner, Clem, to stay, and begins working with Madame Zeena, the carnival's clairvoyant act, and her alcoholic husband, Pete.
Stan begins courting fellow performer, Molly, and asks her to leave the carnival with him, but she refuses. Madame Zeena and Pete teach Stan how to use the coded language and cold reading tricks in their act, while warning him against pretending to speak to the dead. Stan also learns that Clem hires troubled alcoholics to be his geeks, then gives them opium-laced alcohol so they stay. One night, Pete asks Stan for alcohol and is found dead the next day.
Local law enforcement raid the carnival after learning about the geek show. Stan uses his cold reading skills to placate the local sheriff and manipulate him into showing leniency. Shortly thereafter, Molly agrees to leave the carnival with Stan.
Two years later, Stan runs a successful psychic act for the wealthy elite of Buffalo. Molly performs as his assistant, but their relationship has deteriorated as Stan demands perfection from Molly. During a performance, psychologist Dr. Lilith Ritter interrupts and tries to expose their act. Stan bests and humiliates Ritter with his cold reading skills, then reads the man sitting with Ritter, Judge Kimball. After the show, Kimball asks Stan to help him and his wife communicate with their dead son. Stan agrees over Molly's objections.
Stan meets with Ritter to purchase information on Kimball. Ritter agrees, but requests Stan sit for a psychotherapy session in lieu of payment. That night, Molly invites Madame Zeena and other performers to the hotel for an impromptu party. Madame Zeena warns Stan not to do Kimball's reading, claiming to have read his plans from tarot.
Stan performs a successful reading for Kimball and his wife and is paid handsomely. He offers to split the fee with Ritter, but she declines, instead agreeing to hide the money from Molly. Stan informs Ritter that Kimball has offered to introduce him to Ezra Grindle, a very wealthy industrialist and her former patient. At Stan's request, Ritter reluctantly provides incomplete information about Grindle; Stan steals the rest from her records, learning that Grindle forced an abortion on a young woman named Dorrie, and that she likely died from the botched procedure. After successfully convincing Grindle that he is a true medium with the stolen information, Stan starts an affair with Ritter and begins drinking.
Stan holds regular sessions with Grindle for exorbitant fees, while Grindle begins to increasingly demand that Stan make Dorrie's spirit materialize. Stan plans to have Molly pose as Dorrie, which she agrees to do only if she can leave Stan afterwards. On the day Stan plans to "materialize" Dorrie, Kimball's wife murders her husband and commits suicide to be reunited with their son, inspired by Stan's previous reading for them. That evening, Grindle confesses to Stan that he hurt more women after Dorrie's death. Molly makes her appearance as Dorrie immediately after, but her disguise fails when Grindle hugs her. Infuriated, Grindle strikes Molly, provoking Stan to beat him to death. Horrified by the events of the night, Molly leaves.
Stan arrives at Ritter's office to retrieve his savings, but she withholds almost all of it, revealing that she was manipulating him all along. He attacks her but is forced to escape when security arrives. A flashback reveals he killed his bedridden father by intentionally exposing him to hypothermia before burning the house down.
Months later, Stan, now homeless and an alcoholic, sees ads for Madame Zeena in a newspaper. Stan finds a new carnival and learns that his old carnival went out of business. He desperately pitches his mentalist act to the new owner, who rejects it based on Stan's appearance and the act being out of fashion. The owner then offers him a drink and temporary work as a geek, using the same pitch Clem described earlier. Recognizing the trap, Stan nevertheless accepts the job, claiming he was born for it before breaking down laughing.
