In the late 15th century, during the reign of King Yeonsan Jung Jin-young, two male street clowns and tightrope walkers, Jangsaeng Kam Woo-sung and Gong-gil Lee Joon-gi, belong to an entertainer troupe, with Gong-gil captivating audiences in female roles. Their manager profits by prostituting Gong-gil, and when Jangsaeng intervenes to protect him, the manager is killed in a confrontation. The pair flee to Seoul and form a fresh troupe with three other street performers, seeking a safer stage for their art.
Together they craft a bold skit that lampoons members of the royal court, including the king and his favorite, Jang Nok-su Kang Sung-yeon. Their defiant performance leads to a treason charge and severe flogging. Jangsaeng strikes a tense deal with one of the king’s consultants, Choseon, to entertain the king or face execution. They perform for the monarch, but the three minor performers crack under pressure. In a final, daring joke, Gong-gil and Jangsaeng push through their fear, and the king laughs, sealing their fate by inviting them to join his court.
As the king’s whimsy grows, the two clowns recruit more performers and distribute flyers seeking new members. The troupe notices that Jangsaeng and Gong-gil share identical handwriting—an accident of learning to write by watching Gong-gil, which becomes a clue to their bond. Court corruption is exposed when a new performance mocks council members for receiving costly gifts in exchange for favors. The king delights in the skit, but the council members are less amused; he condemns a corrupt minister, ordering his fingers severed and displayed as a warning.
The king’s obsession with Gong-gil deepens, and Gong-gil is summoned to his private chambers for finger puppet shows. Their relationship unsettles Jangsaeng, even as the king’s bloodlust intensifies. A brutal performance demanded by Choseon depicts the former king’s mother—played by Gong-gil—being poisoned after a palace conspiracy; the Queen Mother dies from shock, and the troupe’s shade of danger grows darker. Jangsaeng pleads for Gong-gil to leave with him and the gang, but Gong-gil wavers. Nok-su’s jealousy escalates as the king’s favor shifts back and forth.
When Nok-su orchestrates Gong-gil’s arrest through flyers bearing Gong-gil’s handwriting, Jangsaeng takes the fall to protect his friend, and he faces a death sentence. Choseon privately helps Jangsaeng escape, urging him to forget Gong-gil and escape the palace. But Jangsaeng returns to the rooftops, walking a tightrope and openly mocking the king. The king shoots arrows at him; Jangsaeng is captured again, his eyes burned, and he is imprisoned once more. Gong-gil attempts suicide, only to be saved by palace doctors; the king’s interest in him ebbs, and he turns back to Nok-su, who ridicules his fickleness. Choseon, meanwhile, has already taken his own life, refusing to join a coup against the king.
With Jangsaeng forced to walk the tightrope blind, he recounts the pair’s trials as Gong-gil joins him on the rope. In the climactic Jungjong coup, the two performers soar through the chaos, their artistry momentarily dizzying the king. They leap together from the rope as the palace erupts around them, the king transfixed by their act. Jangsaeng’s and Gong-gil’s fates seem to mirror their art as they confront the end of one era and the fragile dawn of another.
In the final, jubilant image, the troupe—still reeling from loss but bound by shared history—reunites with their surviving friends. They joke, sing, and dance as they walk away into the distance, renewed in their bond and certain that, even in a world of court intrigue and peril, their clowning can endure.
