A phantasmagorical concoction about a mad scientist (Daniel Emilfork) who lives on an oil rig and kidnaps children so he can steal their dreams, believing this will prevent his premature aging. Keeping him company are his wife (a strange dwarf), their twelve children (identically cloned in his image and who suffer from sleeping sickness) and a wise old brain (with a propensity for headaches) that floats in a tank. Meanwhile on land, a huge kindly oaf of a man (Ron Perlman) -- while searching for his brother who's been kidnapped – meets a nine-year-old girl (Judith Vittet) who’s the leader of a wild bunch of orphans. Their tender relationship grows and they meet even more bizarre characters as they eventually make their way across the dark water to the rig.