Tito Beppi and his partner, Simon, are a popular Italian clown act, “Flik” and “Flok.” Traveling with a circus, they find a foundling on a riverbank, and Tito wants to adopt her. Simon objects at first, but to mollify him, Tito names the little girl Simonetta. She grows up in the circus world as a tomboy and learns how to walk on a tightrope. One day, the circus promoter decides to work Simonetta into Flik and Flok’s act, but first she must present herself as a young woman. When Tito suggests that she put a rose in her hair, Simonetta goes searching for a flower in the garden of Count Luigi Ravelli. Although he is a playboy, the nobleman is smitten by Simonetta’s beauty and innocence, and when he sees she has scratched her ankle on the wire fence, he takes her into his house and dresses the injury. When he praises her womanhood, she becomes uncomfortable and leaves. As the girl changes her appearance, Tito’s fatherly love turns to attraction. The inappropriateness of his feelings, mixed with chronic loneliness, overwhelms him with sadness. Despite his occupation as a clown, he begins to weep uncontrollably and is incapable of laughter. Visiting a neurologist, Tito meets Count Ravelli, another patient, who appears to be laughing at him. Tito explains his unrequited love to the doctor, without revealing his paternal relationship, but when the doctor advises him to confess his love, he answers it “wouldn’t be right.” Taking Tito to the window, the doctor points to a large circus sign displaying Flik in makeup, and tells him to go see the famous clown, who has made all of Rome laugh. Tito reveals himself to be Flik, and Count Ravelli apologizes to Tito, explaining that he was not laughing at him. Rather, he has an opposite condition in which he laughs uncontrollably. Despite his life as a Don Juan, he has fallen in love with a young woman. The two men become friends and agree they might be “good for each other,” but when they realize they both love Simonetta, their relationship sours. On the eve of her marriage to Count Ravelli, Simonetta learns that Tito has secretly loved her. She decides to reject the count and marry Tito, but when she goes to break off the engagement, Tito realizes she is sacrificing her future out of guilt and devotion. To free Simonetta, Tito, as Flik, falls while rehearsing a tight-wire trick and is fatally injured.