When Benjamin Bork, whose name is simply Benba, is twenty-two years old, he is going to go to America and carry out one of his many projects that have one goal: to get rich without spending too much effort. Nothing holds the young man in his homeland. Benbe's father, who belonged to the old family of respectable burghers, died when Benbe was a child, his mother also died, having done everything possible to give her son a harsh upbringing. However, she succeeded a little: gifted with an inquiring mind, Benbe is frivolous and inconsistent. He managed to become a bachelor of philosophy and graduate from a trade school, but still does not know what to do. With youthful carelessness, Benbe hopes that, once in America, in a country of "unlimited possibilities," he will somehow manage to find a place in life. Money for the trip is given to him by his maternal uncle, Lengsel, who, together with his wife and two daughters, Vera and Carolina, lives in the Vernoye estate. From the uncle, the young man learns that their relative lives in America, Jonathan Bork, the cousin of the late father of Benbe . Uncle tells Benbe how Jonathan ended up in America. Jonathan, who was not brought up so much as the grandmother Bork pampered, was an extremely unbalanced child and amazed all his relatives with his eccentric behavior. However, at the same time, the boy was distinguished by sincerity, good nature and was so nervous and shy that his grandmother put up with his antics and did not dare to resort to harsh punishments.
One night, young Jonathan robbed the jewelery shop of a Jewish Gavenstein, and gave all the trinkets to school friends. They were planning to hush up the scandal, but the tomboy did not wait for the denouement and, having pulled a few hundred from his grandmother’s closet, disappeared. After some time, letters began to come from America from him, from which it was clear that he had a hard life. After the money was sent to him, no news came from him, and twelve years later Jonathan wrote a letter to his relatives asking him if he could visit his grandmother. For some reason, she decided that he would appear hungry and in tatters, and was ready to forgive his grandson and even find him a decent occupation, but when she found out that Jonathan was fabulously rich, she, to the amazement of all relatives, put him out the door. The proud old woman could not accept the fact that Jonathan, secretly acting through the jeweler Gavenstein, bought her estate, which she was forced to sell, and invited her to become her owner again. But most of all, my grandmother was indignant that Jonathan gained infinite wealth by becoming a clown known throughout America. She grew up in a simple peasant family and could not help but despise the people of this profession. Jonathan visited the Vernoye estate for several weeks, and then arrived only two years after the death of his grandmother, and since then no one has heard anything about him.
Vera, Benbe’s cousin, an ugly, sickly and jaunty girl, hands him a sealed bag to give it to their famous relative, and Benbe leaves. In America, he does not manage to get a job, especially since he does not really strive for this, and when he lives all the money, he tries to meet with Jonathan Bork, a well-known public under the pseudonym Yak Trackback. But this turns out to be not a simple matter: Yak's secretary scans all the letters that are written to him, and the entrance to the huge clown estate is reliably guarded. After several unsuccessful attempts, Benbe despaired of meeting with Yak, but he himself comes to him, and Benbe sees a frail and timid man in front of him. After making sure that Benbe, despite his frivolity and inclination to adventure, is an honest and decent young man, the clown invites him to his estate, in which almost all household items, including furniture, were taken out of their grandmother's house in Sweden. The estate is a bizarre pile of numerous courtyards, picturesque lawns, buildings and covered walkways in which you can get lost: this is a real maze. In addition to Yak himself, his young wife lives here, a former dancer Siv, an elderly couple of Swedes, an elderly Austrian major de Grazie and a black gatekeeper Longfellow with his wife and a bunch of children. To Benbe, secretly from Yak, is his secretary, Abel Rash, son of the jeweler Havenshtein. He insists that Benbe leave America as soon as possible, and promises him a large sum from the Yak Trackback syndicate, which deals with the financial affairs of the illustrious clown. The four owners of the syndicate - influential politicians and big businessmen Adam, Israel, Bych, Perch, as well as brother of the oil magnate, neurologist Henny - are seriously worried that Benbe’s arrival could disrupt the planned Truckback tour in America: a lot of money has already been put into this business and they do not intend to lose considerable interest on profits. The clown learns of Benbe’s conversation with Nash and enrages. He is going to fire the secretary and take Benbe in his place. Moreover, Yak announces to the owners of the syndicate that he will not sign the contract, since he has completely exhausted all his creative possibilities, and his performances have long become a real torture for him.
But the syndicate is not going to just give up their money. Then, Yak declares that he is abolishing the syndicate, and instructs his lawyer to conduct the trial. Benbe is amazed to see him embroiled in a complex and dangerous game. The young man recalls the sealed bag that his cousin Vera asked to pass to Yak. The clown prints a bag: it contains a ladies glove, a pair for the one that Yaku gave many years ago as a souvenir from his lover. Yak admits to Benbe that he had a short affair with Maria, Aunt Benbe and his uncle's wife. The clown still fondly recalls her. Yak begs the young man to go to Sweden and bring Vera, their daughter, the fruit of their secret love, from there. Benbe learns that his aunt secretly corresponded with her husband with Yak and even sent him photographs of Vera.
Benbe arrives in Sweden and marries Vera's sister, a pretty and cheerful Carolina. It turns out that on the bag that Vera handed over to Yak through Benbe, it was written by Mary’s hand that he should be handed to Jonathan Bork only after her death, but the eccentric Vera decided to do her own thing. Benbe gives Maria Langsel the request of Yak, and she agrees to send Vera to her real father. Langsel guesses everything, but gives no sign. He sincerely pities his wife Maria, especially since she does not have long to live: she has liver cancer.
Benbe with Carolina and Vera leave for America. Benbe has grandiose plans: he is going to become a journalist, and this is helped by his new acquaintance, an influential Swedish businessman who takes the young man under his protection. Yak receives a letter from Maria in which a dying woman bitterly expresses to him everything she thinks about him: he is a miserable and low selfish person, he is “her shame, a dirty stain in her name”. A clown falls into a severe depression and is unable to enter the arena. To delay the day of the performance, he deliberately falls from the trapeze during training and breaks his ankle. His daughter arrives, but the relationship between them does not add up. Faith inherited from her father precisely those character traits that do not enjoy the love of others - eccentricity, uncontrollability, irritability, selfishness and painful ambition, but at the same time she is completely devoid of any talents. She does not understand that her father is tired of fame and despises his audience, the girl is flattered by the popularity of her father, and she is pleased to bask in the rays of his glory. Yak with despair understands that he has nothing to do with his daughter, and she demands more attention from him and does not tolerate anyone next to him, even his wife Siv.
The day of Yak’s performance is approaching. In a huge hall, the audience is looking forward to dangerous acrobatic stunts and funny jokes of their favorite. But Yak disappoints the audience: he makes an impromptu monologue, either referring to the Clown’s Catechism written a few days before the performance, or arguing out loud, as if he were alone in this room. The clown expresses to the idle crowd everything that he thinks about life, about art, about love, about the appointment of an artist. But no one understands that this is Yak's confession to himself: everyone is waiting for him to finally begin the funny performance. The clown becomes ill and is taken away from the scene. After a while, Yak yields to the requirements of the syndicate and performs in a vulgar play composed for the public’s needs. All this time, Vera is tormented by idleness and from boredom, first tries to seduce Major de Grazie, who is afraid of her, and then the secretary of Jac, Abel Rash.
A clown does not think of anything but peace. But about five hundred distinguished guests come to his estate to take part in the grand ball, which is given in honor of Yak. Preparation for the holiday rests on the shoulders of Major de Grazie, who arranges a colossal fireworks display to the deafening sounds of jazz. Yak is so confused by surprise that his heart nearly breaks, but the guests think that this is his next trick and laugh at how cleverly he plays mortal horror. Someone releases from the cells of monkeys, the beloved animals of the clown, and they rush about in the park. Guests excited by the music, wine and dances of half-naked teenagers dressed up as Indians begin to behave more and more unbridled. Vera enjoys the holiday, which threatens to turn into a bacchanalia, and frankly flirts with young people, but none of them takes it seriously. The clown is thoughtful and sad. He looks at Vera with bitterness, pity and contempt. Siv, who alone understands what is going on in Yak’s soul, fears that he will give vent to his annoyance, but Yak tells her that he is a clown and will be able to hide his true feelings. A few days later, Yak receives a notification of the death of Maria Langsel.
