 An eleven-year-old boy named T.B. has been stricken with silence following the death of his father. His mother, now at wits end and remarried gets him a ventriloquist dummy on the advice of a therapist. The hope is it will help young T.B. work out his problems and begin to talk. To add insult to injury, T.B. is being bullied at school, there s a girl he likes he s too shy to talk to and his stepfather is not particularly enamored with the boy. During one bullying session, the janitor of the school steps in and chases off T.B. s attackers. It turns out the janitor is Arty Sullivan, a famous ventriloquist from back in the day - his life now a miserable mess consumed with alcohol and loneliness. Seeing some of himself in the boy, he takes him under his wing. He teaches him a few tricks of the trade, but warns him not to become a drive-by ventriloquist: not to go around putting words in other people s mouths - something that ruined Arty s own career. But being eleven, with nothing to lose - can T.B. resist?