Mysterious posters appear one morning in a town, and no one knows who placed them, though they are on every lamp post and wall. The posters depict a woman on a diving board that touches the sky, promising a woman named Stella will dive from one hundred feet into a Flaming Cauldron of Death. A truck appears in the town in October along with three people, who make up the circus group: a limp, short man; a mute and very short but beautiful woman named Stella; and a little girl dressed in white called Angel, who many assume to be Stella's daughter.

The limp man begins constructing a tower in the middle of a field in the town. A policeman arrives one day to ask what the man is doing, and when the man explains, the policeman says he has to pay a twenty-five dollar fee to put on any type of exhibition. The limp man says he cannot pay that much, but a merchant in town offers to pay the fee in exchange for half the earnings. The man agrees since he has no other choice and continues setting everything up for the show.

When the night of the show arrives, the merchant and limp man sell tickets for two dollars per person. A large crowd gathers, though it is raining, to see Stella jump from the high dive. Stella argues through sign language that because of the weather, she cannot do the dive, and the limp man says he will swallow swords and do other tricks instead. The merchant claims, however, that if Stella does not do her jump, they are committing fraud. Stella reluctantly agrees and climbs the tower in a red sequined swimsuit. She does the dive into a flaming pool, and the show is over. It was impressive, but the merchant argues it was too brief. The limp man says that it was enough for one night, and the trio leaves the next morning. The town complains that it was not what they expected, yet they continue to speak of Stella for years to come. And Stella herself sleeps better after that dangerous, life-threatening jump during a storm into a six-foot pool surrounded by flames.