Edmund Peoples, definitely an optimistic person, has just received an important assignment: to visit various lands, each famous for a particular social advance. With orders to report back to his superiors on each land's successful methods and how his country can achieve social betterment as a result, Peoples prepares to leave his girlfriend and best friend behind, and embark on his journey accompanied by two other investigating visitors: the attractive Sunni Childless and the young and ambitious Omar Hinki. As Peoples and the two other visitors agree to separate and launch solo investigations, he begins his romp through ten strange, frightening, and laughable lands where he is confronted with humorous social and non-political spoofs as well as personal struggles that eventually lead him to shed his optimistic persona and embrace pessimism. Forced to question his beliefs, trust in strangers, and face danger, Peoples manages to survive his journey and return home, only to discover he has lost everything. Now jobless, aimless, and without a purpose, Peoples must somehow find his way back to a happy life. Visit to the Circus of Fools shares a hero's entertaining, satirical journey through various lands as he learns more than he ever imagined, especially about himself.