Two hundred years earlier, a circus starship is stranded on the Planet Momus. Recently discovered by the rest of the galaxy, the population of Momus the remaining descendants of the original circus must deal with interstellar power politics and war, and they do so in their own special way.

The Last Show on Earth finds its survival by taking to the stars and playing the worlds of the near galaxy, becoming the greatest show off Earth. "What Barry has done . . . is to take a magnificent way of life, which today seems on the verge of extinction, and fling it bodily into the future, toward immortality." —Spider Robinson

When their spaceship Starshow crashes on a desolate planet, the members of O'Hara's Greater Shows, a futuristic circus, struggle to keep themselves and their animals alive, stranded on a world without an audience.