Nine-year-old Maurice can see the dead, including his twin brother Jacques. He lives in a French village with his embittered mother Marie (dad is off fighting in WWII), who is suspicious of everyone, including the local doctor and her husband, Maurice's teacher. When a diphtheria epidemic claims the lives of local children, their desperate mothers want to use Maurice's abilities to contact them but the deceased kids only have one wish--for their mothers to join them.