 Dramatic tale of a young boy who prefers his outrageous imagination to the painful reality of his everyday life. Desperate to escape persecution at school and at home, young James wanders the docks of his picturesque coastal hometown until he befriends Henry (Robert Forster), a retiree building a boat to sail around the world. One fateful night, when James is separated from his deeply troubled mother (played by Nastassja Kinski in one of her finest performances), Henry teaches him the greatest magic trick of all in how to live in the happy place found somewhere between fantasy and reality.