He Who Gets Slapped is his most famous play of Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev_ The story is about a mysterious man who arrives at Papa Briquet's circus, and applies to become a clown. He joins the circus as a clown whose popular act is based on repeated slapping. The clown, better known as "Him," is slapped every time he tries to speak and with each slap relives his personal and professional humiliation.

Behind his mask hides a scientist whose happiness is destroyed by a friend who steals not only his wife but also the results of his life's research. But changes occur in his life when the clown meets another circus artist, a pretty young bareback horsewoman named Consuelo.