<P> At Jupiter, Florida in 1952, German expatriate Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange), the ambitious owner of a struggling freak show entitled "Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities" and who was seeking her own fame and stardom, recruit conjoined twin sisters Bette and Dot Tattler (Sarah Paulson), whose two heads shared one body, as new members of her troupe after being identified by the police as fugitives since Bette's recent murder of their overprotective mother during an argument . When the sisters arrive, they were welcomed by their fellow freaks; Elsa's subordinate and confidante Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates) the bearded lady, her lobster - handed son Jimmy (Evan Peters), Paul the Illustrated Seal (Mat Fraser), the giantess Amazon Eve (Erika Ervin), the legless Suzi (Rose Siggins), pinheads Salty and Pepper (Christopher Neiman and Naomi Grossman), the youngest Meep (Ben Woolf), and the dwarf performers: ex-convict Toulouse (Drew Rin Varick) and Elsa's most significant companion Ma Petite (Jyoti Amge) who was the smallest of the group . </P> <P> During the troupe's first performance with the twins, the only spectators in the audience were wealthy socialite widow Gloria Mott (Frances Conroy) and her spoiled, mentally unstable son Dandy (Finn Wittrock), who displayed an insalubrious fascination for the freaks, especially for Bette and Dot, who were romantically attracted by him after he tried to purchase them for $15,000 to Elsa . The disappearance of a detective, whom Jimmy had murdered in defense of the Tattlers earlier, left the police to enforce a citywide curfew in search for the culprit which would impact Elsa's business . Other new members of the troupe include Dell Toledo (Michael Chiklis), the strongman who was Ethel's ex-husband and Jimmy's birth father; and his three - breasted wife Desiree Dupree (Angela Bassett)--both whom were deputized by Elsa since Dell's recent crime against a troupe in Chicago to reinstate the position of Ethel's job due to her chronic alcoholism . When the twins were assigned as headliners of their second performance which attracted the audience to their popularity, Elsa's jealousy and cruelty against them and the troupe drove her to selfish determination in achieving her personal desires . </P> <P> After Jimmy deny Dandy's opportunity to join the troupe, Gloria, with the intent to console her son, mistakes a demented serial killer clown named Twisty (John Carroll Lynch), who was responsible for the recent crimes that plagued around town, as a stray circus performer and brings him to surprise Dandy as his playmate . When Dandy peeks in Twisty's belongings, however, the latter knocks him down and runs away back to his dwelling at the woods, where he has several kidnapped children for his personal performance; his plan is to win back their attention against the freaks, who had cruelly taunted him in his past life as a former troupe member, leaving him devastated and hence fuelling him to attempt at his life, which resulted in his lower jaw mutilated after shooting himself in his mouth . Dandy follows Twisty and forms an allegiance with him after discovering the Twisty's intentions . </P> <P> On Halloween after Meep was framed by the detective's murder and killed on a prison assault, an old superstition tells the tale of a two - faced spirit Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley) who claims a soul of a performer on Halloween . While Jimmy and the troupe holds a funeral for Meep, they meet and welcome Maggie Esmerelda (Emma Roberts)--a young convict posed as a fortune teller from Philadelphia sent by her abettor and con artist Stanley (Denis O'Hare), who intends to murder the freaks and sell their corpses to a dying human oddity museum bribed from its curator for profit . </P>

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