In 1963, Lucius Cook, an eleven-year-old orphan, comes to live with a lawyer, Kenneth Crane, and his family at their stately Victorian home in the affluent suburbs of Hartford, Connecticut. Quiet and precocious, Lucius is in awe of his surroundings. He discovers he shares Mr. Crane's creative passion for photography. The Crane's clever daughter, Beatrice, keeps Lucius on his toes, while the lawyer's stunning and aloof wife, Eleanor, captivates him. As time passes, his curiosity for Eleanor, twenty years his senior, grows from spellbound boyhood fascination to a young man's deep consuming desire. Charmed by amorous illusions, love and happiness elude Lucius, and he wonders if he will ever know what they truly mean.