A 50-year-old caretaker is employed to look after 10-year-old girl. His most important task is to maintain her dentures that are made of ice and must be changed several times a day.

The only residents of young Nicholas' sea-side town are women and boys. When he sees a corpse in the ocean one day, he begins to question his existence and surroundings. Why must he, and all the other boys, be hospitalised?