A Son of the Circus teems with characters. Farrokh Darawalla serves as the hero. He is the son of Dr. Lowji Darawalla, a famous orthopedist who founded the Hospital for Crippled Children in Bombay and who was killed by a car bomb because of his atheism. Farrokh Darawalla and his wife Julia have no children, but Darawalla plays surrogate father to various dwarfs and crippled children in Bombay and to his father's adopted son, John D. Anonymously, he writes screenplays for John D., turning him into the controversial movie star Inspector Dhar.

John D./Inspector Dhar and his twin Martin Miller are separated at birth when their mother, an actress, decides to marry one of her lovers and pass Martin off as this lover's child. Where Dhar loses his identity in the roles Darawalla creates for him, Martin seeks his in studying for the priesthood at age thirty-nine...