When Peter comes to stay with his dead mother's twin sister and her husband while his stepfather is away on business, he is immediately plunged into a chain of frightening and bizarre events that can’t possibly have anything to do with him—an ordinary, somewhat solitary boy. But then, is he really so ordinary? Is his uncle—a complete stranger—as ordinary as he at first appears? As for the retired scientist, what ordinary man has the type of power he seems to wield?