1932 to 1938 — Freak Show
- Elsa Mars (Jessica Lange), a woman living in Brandenburg, Germany, is drugged and forced to perform in a snuff film. Asylum's deranged doctor, Hans Grüper (James Cromwell), amputates her legs with a chainsaw.
- After escaping to America in 1936, Elsa adopts an unfortunate outcast named Pepper.
- With the addition of Ethel Darling (Kathy Bates) and her son Jimmy Darling (Evan Peters), the whole operation grows into Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities.