The movie describes the life of a former circus artist who earns his living from the presentation in villages and towns of a sensational number entitled "Sword Swallower".
In 1963, living a routine life on Norma Place in Los Angeles, recluse writer Dorothy Parker and bisexual husband Alan Campbell recall their often-rocky relationship, started thirty years earlier.
Shankar is a self-starter who is scorned and expelled from the family by his virago stepmother. However, he well-earns with his hard work and lives buoyant with his wife Sona and a child Munna.
The Bed opens with Jamie, a young man, looking round an old, deserted country house. Through flashback we see Jamie as a boy, scared out of his wits when his older sister and her boyfriend, left alone in the house to babysit Jamie for the evening, play cruel tricks on him.