To escape the doldrums of home life with her aunt and uncle, Stella accepts a job as assistant stage manager for a repertory theatre company in post-WWII Liverpool. The starstruck teenager quickly develops a crush on the arrogant artistic director, Meredith Potter, and charms the cast with her naive yet ingenuous statements about life. When a local theater star, P.L. O'Hare, is summoned to save a production of "Peter Pan," Stella is drawn into an adult world where the consequences are both comical and chilling.