A girl stands behind the carnival rope with a small pumpkin held carefully in both hands. Its candle lights a deeply downturned mouth. On the wooden ramp, a young man in a black leather jacket has stopped and turned to look back at her. Farther ahead, costumed riders continue toward the enormous painted mouth of the ghost-train entrance.

The pumpkins along both rails share the same unhappy expression. Their orange light repeats up the slope, making the change seem stranger with each face. Hard white floodlights reveal the panel seams and worn paint of the towering facade. Bats, pale moons and ghostly shapes surround the entrance, while the metal fence cuts across the lower foreground.

A Ferris wheel turns against the violet and orange sky to the left. Beneath it, warm bulbs light a small stand displaying glossy candy apples. The girl's plum coat and knitted hat hold their soft texture in the mixed light. The whole carnival continues around the brief exchange between her, the pumpkin and the man on the ramp.