The story follows Morgan, a recluse who lives in a giant mansion. He is scarred from a violent childhood episode (physically) and one day a housekeeper named Engle arrives to take care of him. After Engle arrives a bunch of children start appearing at the house. There is no explanation for their origin, they are just accepted as arrived and Engle and Morgan begin to take care of them all. Morgan befriends a doctor named Crane who also moves into the house, because why not.
A couple of times two men from a "ministry" appear to find out where the kids have gone. Morgan then decides to fix his father's car and go outside the gates of his estate. They drive to a "factory" owned by Morgan's family and confront his sister, who owns the family business.
They find a "potting shed" filled with half buried children who they attempt to rescue but end up killing in the process. Then they free more children from the fields outside. It's all very strange. There is probably some greater allegory going on here that I'm just too confused to pick up on. The book is blessedly short, and I'm sure I could put together a lesson from the story of children who are at once innocent and capable of terrible deeds, as they are in the story. There is a reference to children in a home being killed at the concentration camps after being evacuated.
I know that's giving up basically the entire book, but I don't see the harm in that. It's a confusing book to read and in the end the final portion of the story is not very satisfying.
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