One morning in 1932, Algernon Tuckett, 22-years-old, junior clerk at Gurney and Barman’s wool mill awakes to find that he has been transformed into a clown. What is more, he is an old decrepit clown, reeking of whisky.

Surprisingly unperturbed by this, he attempts to make it to his office, or the doctor’s, or out of a bad dream. But, despite his best efforts, he becomes way-laid at every turn, and embroiled in a series of surrealistic episodes that are completely out of his control. These include being in a school gymnasium, doing pointless jobs in a factory and getting drawn into a circus. Familiar places take on new aspects, and people who he knows are transformed into totally different characters (including his boss, his landlady and Lumina, a typist for whom he has a crush). In his quest to return to normality he finds himself unable to escape from this spectacle as events unfold and become more and more absurd.