One year, an elderly woman giving out candy on Halloween meets a little girl dressed as a witch who takes more candy than her share, which earns the woman’s respect. As the years go by, the little witch visits every Halloween without seeming to age at all.

One year she tells the woman her name is Alice. The elderly woman grows concerned for her health and questions her neighbors about the child, but they are suspicious of her motivations and don’t provide help. Their animosity is further fueled by mysterious events in which people who wrong the elderly woman, such as failing to properly shovel snow from her driveway or steal all her candy, either get hurt or die soon after.

One day, a policewoman named Officer Sharon visits her and lets her know about her reputation, and the elderly woman mistakes her for a ghost. The next day, her cat dies and becomes a ghost as well. 

One Halloween, the woman leaves candy out on the doorstep and goes to bed. When she wakes up, the little witch is standing over her, asking for more food. The elderly woman feeds her and goes back to bed, but the little witch stays the next day. Soon they establish a casual routine of life together even as the woman notices the little witch does impossible things, such as levitate, touch her ghost cat, or carry trees by herself.

The two grow attached to each other, but the woman knows their time is limited as she feels painful lumps forming on her scalp. After they spend a year together, they go trick-or-treating on Halloween and Alice takes her to Officer Sharon’s house.

The officer greets them and the elderly woman passes Alice on to her, watching as they go inside together to exchange their knowledge about magic. She herself wanders away until she arrives at a farm and goes to sleep in the earth.