Set in 1980s seaside England, this is the story of Edward, an unusual ten-year-old boy growing up in an old people's home run by his parents. While his mother struggles to keep the family business afloat, and his father copes with the on-set of a mid-life crisis, Edward is busy tape-recording the elderly residents to try and discover what happens when they die. Increasingly obsessed with ghosts and the afterlife, Edward's is a rather lonely existence until he meets Clarence, the latest recruit to the home, a retired magician with a liberating streak of anarchy. This movie tells the story of this odd couple, a boy and an old man, facing life together, with Edward learning to live in the moment, and Clarence coming to terms with the past.