The fourth season is set in Jupiter, Florida in 1952, and follows thelives of a troupe of people belonging to one of the last remaining freakshows of its time. Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange) is the owner of FräuleinElsa's Cabinet of Curiosities; and her performers, who she calls hermonsters, include the bearded lady Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates), her sonJimmy Darling (Evan Peters), the strongman Dell Toledo (Michael Chiklis)and his three-breasted wife Desiree Dupree (Angela Basset), as well asthe newly recruited conjoined twin sisters Bette and Dot Tattler (SarahPaulson).
Danger lurks in the sleepy hamlet of Jupiter; one of them being theserial killer Twisty the Clown (John Carroll Lynch), who is responsiblefor recent murders and kidnappings that plagued the town. After theirmother is found stabbed to death, Bette and Dot are discovered stabbedthemselves at their farmhouse. The news makes headlines, and soon Elsadiscovers the twin’s existence. Believing the sisters to be her troupe'ssaviors, she brings them back to camp. They meet their fellow freaksPaul the Illustrated Seal (Mat Fraser) who has seal-like flippers forhands, Amazon Eve (Erika Ervin) who is the largest and strongest womanof the show, and finally the tiny treasure from India, Ma Petite (JyotiAmge) who is the smallest woman in the world. Bette sees the show astheir haven, finally having escaped the confinement of their formerlives. But Dot, who is more cynical towards the world believes that theyare being exploited for their appearance.
Tensions rise when a detective arrives at the freak show to arrest Betteand Dot for the recent string of murders. After calling them all freaksand threatening to drive them out of town, Jimmy slices the detective’sthroat with a razor and the freaks dispose of his body. After aperformance, which was bought out by a wealthy widow named Gloria Mott(Frances Conroy) and her emotionally stunted son Dandy Mott (FinnWittrock), Dandy demands to buy the twins, offering Elsa $15,000, butthe offer is declined. Enraged by his boring life, Dandy sets out tojoin the freak show, but Jimmy turns him down, setting him into a fit ofrage. Hoping to cheer her son up, Gloria finds Twisty on the side ofthe road and brings him home to surprise Dandy. Dandy searches insidehis bag and finds a severed head, causing Twisty to knock Dandy out andrun away. Dandy follows him back to an abandoned school bus in themiddle of the woods, where he discovers the kidnapped children andrealizes the two can work together.
New to the troupe are strongman Dell and his wife Desiree, who fledChicago after Dell murdered a man having sex with Desiree. Elsa allowshim to be the shows bodyguard, but he soon becomes more than she canhandle after he degrades her and beats up Jimmy. Ethel is less thanhappy about Dell's arrival, and it is revealed that he and Ethel weremarried, and after trying to kill his own son Jimmy, Ethel made himleave. When she learns that her liver is failing, Ethel makes Dellpromise to look after Jimmy when she dies, though he is never to tellhim of his true lineage.
After visiting the Museum of Morbid Curiosities, con artists Stanley(Denis O’Hare) and Maggie Esmerelda (Emma Roberts) set their eyes onElsa's troupe, hoping to make some money by selling the freak's corpsesto the museum. Posing as a fortune teller, Maggie joins the troupe andsoon falls for Jimmy. On Halloween, Ethel tells the urban legend ofEdward Mordrake (Wes Bentley), a man born with a face on the back of hishead, who, if summoned on Halloween, will take a freak to hell withhim. Elsa performs Gods and Monsters on Halloween night, unknowinglysummoning Mondrake; who goes around camp learning the tales of itsperformers. Coming to Elsa's tent, she reveals her past life in Germany,where she worked as a dominatrix. Mordrake asks about her missing legsand it is revealed that Elsa was a victim of Hans Grüper, also known asDr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell), who amputated her legs while filming asnuff film. Mordrake is about to choose Elsa to take to hell, but hehears music and realizes Elsa is not the one. Jimmy and Maggie try torescue the kidnapped children after discovering Twisty's hideout, butDandy knocks them out and he and Twisty put on a show for the kids. Thepair soon escape and Mordrake visits Twisty, asking to learn his tale.He learns that Twisty worked as a clown at a freak show, and after twodwarves convinced him the police were after him for molesting children,Twisty made a failed suicide attempt, that left his jaw blown off. Afterrevealing his misdeeds, Mordrake stabs and kills Twisty.
Now that his mentor is dead, Dandy kills his maid Dora (Patti Labelle),soon followed by a prostitute named Andy (Matt Bomer). Dora's daughterRegina Ross (Gabourey Sidibe) later visits Mott Manor looking for hermother. After learning of the murders, Gloria asks Dandy to see atherapist, but he refuses. Gloria attempts to end the madness, but Dandysteals her gun, shooting his mother in the head and bathing in a tubfull of her blood. While staying at the camp posing as a Hollywoodtalent agent, Stanley pressures Maggie to murder Jimmy and Ma Petite,but she can't go through with either one. He turns to Dell and after heblackmails him with the knowledge of his homosexual tendencies, Dellkills Ma Petite by breaking her spine.
Overhearing Elsa's plans to help get rid of the twins with Stanley,Ethel confront Elsa accusing her of killing anyone who steals herspotlight, including Ma Petite. Ethel shoots Elsa in her wooden leg, andElsa throws a dagger through Ethel's eye, killing her. After she andStanley make her death look like a suicide, Jimmy sinks into a drunkendespair over his mother's death. Dandy offers a detective one milliondollars to kill Regina, which he does. Afterward, he visits Jimmy'sTupperware party women and kills them all, framing Jimmy for the crime.Elsa prepares for her move to Hollywood after Stanley promises her acareer in television, but when Dell soon tells her of Stanley convincingJimmy to sell his hands to afford bail, she realizes he isn't to betrusted. Traveling salesman and magician Chester Creb (Neil PatrickHarris) soon visits the freak show, falling in love with the twins andtaking their virginity. Elsa sells the show to him, but has little ideathat he is a psychopath that believes his doll Marjorie is alive.
Once he admits his act of killing Ma Petite to Desiree, Elsa shoots Dellin the head and kills him. During a feast to welcome the new owner, thefreaks reveal they know of Stanley's true intentions, after Maggieconfesses to Desiree. Desiree killed the curator of the museum and givesher head to Stanley. Pleading for his life, the freaks chase Stanleyaround camp, later amputating his limbs and turning him into their ownversion of Meep. After Chester kills Maggie by sawing her in half, Elsasells the show to Dandy and moves to Hollywood when the freaks turn onher for killing Ethel.
The freaks also turn on Dandy and quit the show, but this proves fatalas Dandy massacres all of them except Desiree, the twins and Jimmy.Desiree hides during the rampage while Jimmy is away from the grounds.The twins marry Dandy, but this is all revealed to be an act ofvengeance for murdering the freaks, as Desiree drugs Dandy at dinner. Heawakens to find himself chained in Harry Houdini's Chinese torturetank; and drowned while the remaining freaks watch.
In 1960, Elsa is now a household name with her very own TV show andmultiple hit songs. Even with fame and fortune, Elsa is still unhappywith her life and meets with her old flame Massimo Dolcefino (DannyHuston), who tells her that he is dying. The president of WBN tells Elsathat a copy of her snuff film has surfaced and that it will ruin hercareer. After learning that all of her freaks have died, she agrees toperform on a live telecast on Halloween, summoning Edward Mordrake andhis troupe, who kills her. During the telecast, we see a married Desireewho is now a mother of two children, as well as a pregnant Bette andDot who are happily married to Jimmy. Instead of taking her to hell,Mordrake banishes Elsa to a reincarnation of her freak show, where allof her deceased freaks now reside. Elsa takes the stage to perform,finally finding happiness with her true family.
