from the introduction: In which a group of young circus performers are abandoned, and must track down their circus family, learning where they come from and how important they are to each other in the process. The players take on the roles of circus performers in America, in the 1870s. The civil war has ravaged the south, and while reconstruction money is starting to flow into the bigger cities, life is very hard in small town America. Times are hard, and the players find themselves having to make some tough choices. Thematically the game deals with what it means to be a family, with consequences, and with the price of happiness.