Simon is a former film critic, a man without a job, prospects or profession, since the magazine where he was editor-in-chief was found guilty of libel. When Simon receives a university offer to write a book about a forgotten actor from the silent film era, he seizes his last opportunity to save his career. Moreover, the material is interesting: Tubby Thackeray is a clown, at whose performances, according to rumors, people literally died of laughter. A comedian whose films, which were once on a par with the creations of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, disappeared almost without a trace, as if they were deliberately tried to destroy them. Simon begins to collect information bit by bit in closed archives, at strange circus performances and even at a porn studio, but the further he progresses in the research, the more his life turns into a terrible nightmare from which there seems to be no way out... After all, Tabby was forgotten for a reason, and him the legacy is connected to something that is much older than cinema, something incredibly dangerous and crazy.