Comedy drama set in a seaside town in 1980s England, depicting the unusual friendship between a lonely ten-year-old, Edward (Bill Milner), and retired magician Clarence (Michael Caine). Growing up in the inauspicious setting of the old people's home run by his distracted parents (Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey), the inquisitive Edward spends his time tape-recording the elderly residents in an attempt to learn about death, a subject by which he is endlessly fascinated. His life changes with the arrival of the irrascible, embittered Clarence, who becomes part of Edward's ongoing quest to untangle the mysteries of mortality.