The village is alive with rumours about the Tall Man and Tom lives in his house. Tom hears a boy in the cellar offering a 'special' acorn to a rat, Captain Rat, whom he begs to find the key to his leg-iron. The cellar is empty but Tom knows that the boy is real and he's convinced that he is trapped in a brutal past and the Tall's Man's prisoner. Each time Tom tries to help the boy, the Tall Man's ghostly presence intensifies. Who is the boy in the cellar and can they escape Tall Man?