 When a small town claims that tolerance as its the absolute value, a carnival worker decides to test their belief. During their celebration, "The Festival of Human Enlightenment", a carnival worker removes an elephant from its pen and walks it into the center of town. There, the governor is giving a speech about the importance of absolute tolerance. The carnival worker kills the elephant in front of everyone. However, since the town is sworn to tolerance, it is forced to withhold action against him. Disturbed by this turn of events, Greg tries to convince his wife that something must be done. However, she, like the rest of the town, does not want to infringe on the carnival worker s self-expression. Greg tries to rally the town to action, but nobody wants to listen. He warns them of the disease the elephant is spreading, but their ears are closed and the police run him out of town. Overtaken by the smell and disease, the town slowly dies off. Tom, a young boy, tries to get his mom s attention to his sickness. However, she will not listen and tells him to lie down. Sadly, Tom passes away because of his mother s tolerance. The last one to die is the governor who is left to witness the destruction he invoked on the town.