Sensitive and bird-like Árni works as a handyman at a small and dingy traveling circus touring in rural areas. The troupe is made up from a family that runs the circus, where Árni is the only non-family member. He lives like a monk, his days revolve around feeding the animals and doing various works for the circus. The circus gets a new python, and the creature piques Árni's curiosity. As he starts taming it, the process gradually makes an impact on him.

Set over three generations and beginning with a sexually frustrated orderly during WWII who relieves his tensions in the most outlandish, gross ways. The result of his liaison is a glutton who grows up to be a champion speed eater. He produces a child who becomes obsessed with taxidermy.

In 1957 Budapest, one year following the failure of the Hungarian Revolution, a 12-year-old Jewish boy whose mother has raised him to believe that his father will return from the camps has his hopes shattered when a brutish stranger appears on the doorstep to take his family back.