An armed man nervously enters a child’s room. A sudden commotion makes him pull the trigger. The gunfire awakens the child and the man breaks down in tears. Later, Jessie and Mark Hobson take in a foster child, eight-year-old Cody Morgan, after their young son Sean dies from accidentally drowning in the bathtub.
On his first night, before Cody goes to sleep, he reveals to Jessie about the nightmarish creature called “the Canker Man” to which Jessie brushes it off and tells Cody that it’s only a bad dream and it can’t do any real damage. Later that night, the two are amazed as multicolored butterflies flutter across the living room, emitting a strong glow. Mark tries to capture a blue butterfly to show to Cody, as he has a liking for butterflies. However, Cody wakes up and the butterflies disappear. The next day at school, he befriends a girl name Annie and antagonizes a mean student. At home, Cody asks Mark who the child in the picture is, and Mark replies that he is their dead son, Sean. Cody answers that his mom is dead, too. That night, the couple see their deceased child and try to hug him. When Cody wakes up, Sean disappears. Upon discovering Cody’s gift of making his dreams become reality, Jessie takes advantage of it. She lets Cody watch home videos of Sean and, that night, the couple once again sees their beloved child. Days later, Mark accuses his wife of using Cody for his gift instead of loving him. After the argument, Mark takes down the pictures of Sean.
