Elsa unveils a dangerous new knife-throwing act which she plans to use on her new television show. It is her birthday week and the freaks are hard at work creating birthday presents for her. When they bring their gifts to her, they mention the twins' absence and Elsa tells them to forget about the Tattler sisters. Since they ran off, they're not worth anyone's concern any longer.

Paul, who is Elsa's lover, has started a relationship with a woman in town: Penny, the nurse who followed Elsa back to the camp when she liberated Bette and Dot. Penny's father is a hard man who does not approve of his daughter's earlier disappearance.

Dandy Mott falls in love with Bette and Dot and plans to marry them, to his mother's dismay. Bette has fallen in love with Dandy, too. Dot, however, hasn't. She plans to use Dandy and his money to have surgery to separate herself from her sister.

Paul sees Dandy in the drugstore buying two of everything and surmises that Dandy has the Tattler twins. He tells Jimmy his suspicions and Jimmy reacts angrily. Paul recognizes Elsa as a jealous old woman who will kill anyone who gets in her spotlight. 

When Jimmy volunteers to to go on the wheel in order to prove that the freaks trust Elsa, Paul goes in his place and the freaks watch in fear for his life. The first two knives miss him, but the third lands in his stomach. 

Penny shows up at the camp as Elsa is letting Paul bleed out in his tent. That Elsa never called a doctor confirms Paul's story for Jimmy. Elsa knows where the twins are. Before he can run away with Maggie, he goes to Dandy Mott's house to rescue the twins.

Stanley pressures Maggie to kill Jimmy so that they can sell his hands to the museum. Instead they make a plan to take Ma Petite, disguising her death as an animal attack. Maggie lures Ma Petite to the barn but cannot bring herself to kill the freak.