1348. Auxerre, France. Plague ravages Europe and "one-third of Christendom lies under sod." The pope trembles in fear inside a glass-walled chamber in Avignon, while flagellants, lepers and scavengers ravage the countryside. Enter a desperate epileptic monk and his ragtag band of blind jugglers, one-legged dancers, disgraced nuns and others, all on a sacred mission to bring cheap laughs to the suffering masses.