Charlie is a sweet but lonely young girl who comes from a rich and high class family that doesn't have any time for her. She is seemingly good friends with Helsa Von Eldritch who also comes from a rich and high class family but their friendship is more or less for show. She is gifted in music and performing but her talents and dreams are mocked and shamed by almost everyone who knows her. Due to this she feels completely alone in the world and that there's no one out there in this whole world who would actually like her for who she is.
However this changes when her class takes a field trip to see a circus that comes to town. When the time comes to witness the freak show, one of the acts is something called the Deer Boy which according to ringmaster is a creature that's half human half deer. For the show the deer boy who is kept in a cage and is mercilessly whipped but while the other children laugh, Charlie can only look on in horror. Later Helsa and her older brother Seviathan, convince her to sneak backstage where the Von Eldritch siblings decide to taunt the Deer Boy. Unable to bear this, she angrily comes to his defense and gets them to leave. Before she can leave as well the Deer Boy grabs hold of her hand, they make eye contact, and he's immediately smitten.
Of course what no one realizes is that the Deer Boy is actually a regular boy called Alastor who after the death of his mother, was taken in by the circus which not only abused him but surgically stitched deer antlers into his head and scarred his body so that he would come off as half breed animal boy. When Charlie leaves, he manages to grab her hairpin which he uses to pick the lock of his cage and then strangles one of his abusers with his own whip as a way to escape. He secretly follows Charlie back to her home and although frightened of him at first, she ends up befriending him and hiding him from the circus and the law. The only one who knows about it is Charlie's family clothing designer Rosie who agrees to look after him and civilize him.
Alastor is revealed to also be gifted for music and performing which brings him and Charlie closer together. Both become so much happier because they feel like they've finally found someone who cares for them but as their relationship grows they find several trials that they have to go through. Such as Alastor having PTSD and violent tendencies due to the abuse he suffered, keeping his whereabouts a secret, Seviathan's lecherous interest in Charlie, and the fact that there are others in that circus who are also abused and in desperate need of a way to escape. Like Angel Dust the Spider Boy, Vaggie the Moth Girl, and Husk the Cat Man. Can just one girl prove to a hero for the people that society deems "Freaks."