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The Woodrys live in a New York City tenement. Nine-year-old Tommy Woodry has a penchant for telling what he considers are harmless stories of fancy. Most of the people to whom he tells the stories know they are such, but the belief in a few of those stories has led to potential problems. As such, his parents, Ed and Mary Woodry, want him to stop telling lies or else be punished. One evening during a heat wave, Tommy witnesses their upstairs neighbors, Joe and Jean Kellerson, kill a man through their window while sleeping on the fire escape outside. He also overhears them stating that the killing was premeditated. Tommy not only tells his parents but also the police. His exasperated parents believe Tommy is once again crying wolf, but the two people who know that Tommy is telling the truth are the Kellersons, to whom the story gets back. Tommy thus fears for his safety, especially one evening when his parents are not around and he is physically confined to their apartment. Tommy will do anything to protect himself from the Kellersons or to get someone in authority truly to believe the Kellersons are the murderers he says they are, that is if he can escape from his confinement.