After the untimely death of his father, the little boy is left in the terrible loneliness of a vast country estate with his recently widowed stepmother. Trying to cope with the overwhelming task of parenthood, his stepmother moves away, putting their fragile bond at risk of destruction. Amid the growing tension, the boy begins to hear disturbing sounds echoing down the corridor, and is soon haunted by the presence of a grotesque creature that bears an unsettlingly familiar resemblance to his late father. As the boy's warnings are dismissed as the imagination of a grieving child, the sinister entity tightens its grip on their crumbling lives.