A long chain of origami animals on barbed wire adorns a wooded landscape on the outskirts of dystopian Earth. Lights hang from trees; some no longer work. The circus visits every seventy-six years or so, raining down flyers—some for a performance fifty years from now, others for a performance fifty years in the past. Countries are dying, most of the planet is plagued by disease, the sky is falling, some of the birds have stopped singing, and people hide in their houses, burrowing under the covers. No one uses paper anymore except for the circus, for its origami animals.

A woman and her cat move to this part of the world from a larger city. It is implied that the woman is running from a criminal past. She finds a flyer stuck in the screen door with her name. She crumples it up, buries it in the yard, then digs it back up and burns it. Stale popcorn rains from the sky as she gets drunk. Since she has "used up" her name and no longer has one, she takes her sister's, Wren. Wren died by falling into a well while in the process of poisoning someone's water.

The new Wren is examining the origami animals in a dark clearing when she hears a faint jingling. Suddenly, a bright light turns on from high above her. A trapeze is sent down. Wren grabs hold of it, and it begins to rise. She stretches her toes and dangles her feet in the air. Music plays. Wren's cat jumps into her arms, joining her in the ascent to the circus. Wren arches her spine until she is upside down, looking down at Earth. She spins with her cat. This isn't how she planned to run away, but she is glad. Then the piano fades and the brass band quiets, and they're gone: a comet, a wonder, a hoax.