A writer, desperate for an idea for a new novel, becomes infatuated with a 14 year old boy that moved with his family into a spooky old Gothic brownstone next door. What attracted the writer about the boy was that he kept a boa constrictor in his bedroom. Then a series of accidents and a murder occurred in the house and the police suspected the boy might be a psychopath and the writer had reason to fear he could be next.