Anne and Michael, the parents of a young girl named Sheila, find her leaving mutilated fairies outside the house. They thought Sheila’s actions were accidental until they began finding fairy body parts inside the house. One day the mother, Anne, interrupts Sheila outside while she is in the middle of killing fairies. She brings Sheila inside the house. The father is upset that he is left to clean up the mess outside. When he goes inside, he finds that his wife has closed all the windows.

Michael asks why she closed the windows. Anne responds that the fairies won’t let Sheila get away with doing this. However, Anne does not want the fairies to get away with retaliating and hurting Sheila. Anne does not think that Sheila knows any better. The father says they need to punish Sheila themselves. Anne continues to slam the windows shut.

They ban Sheila from going outside. Michael is in his office working. He opens his window and finds a hornet nest outside. He closes the window again and feels stifled in his own home.

Sheila begins to act out and throw tantrums because she is not allowed to play outside. Several nights after Sheila has gone to sleep, Anne will go outside to sit. She never invites her husband. One night Michael follows her and he sees that Anne has made a graveyard for the dead fairies. He goes back inside as Anne is not talkative.

Michael is greeted by Sheila’s screams. Both parents rush upstairs to check on her. She is sitting in her bed distraught. They bring her downstairs and ask what was wrong. Sheila simply says “wings.” Michel says it was just a dream. Anne says that it was creatures with wings attacking her. Michael says she needs to be punished. Anne disagrees and says that all Michael cares about is revenge.

They all go to bed together. In the morning, Michael wakes up to Anne crying as Sheila stands in the doorway pulling the wings and legs off a fairy. Michael remembers when they had a problem with windows when they previously lived in a city. One night, Anne left the windows entirely open to let air in, but creatures of the night invaded their home instead. Michael, suggest she takes a break from her work and go on a trip, as both Michael and Anne work from home. Anne doesn’t know how she can leave her daughter so close to the anniversary of their last home invasion. Eventually, she agrees to go on a trip and leaves Sheila with Michael.

Once Anne is gone, Michael opens the windows and allows Sheila to play outside. All the windows have screens to prevent things from getting in. That night, after Sheila is in bed, Michael goes to his office and pops the screen out. Sheila approaches him and says that she is thirsty. Michael says he is fixing something and will be with her soon. Sheila sees the open window and says that her mom will be upset. Michael tells her to go wait in her room. He brings her water and puts her to bed. He goes to bed. He wakes up to the screams of her daughter who is being attacked by wasps who sting her repeatedly. Michael helps her out of the room and tries to save her from the attacks, but she is completely covered in the creatures. Eventually, Michael can get her into the car. He takes her to the doctor. She begins to recover but has lost all her hair and moves rather slowly. Michael thinks that now Sheila knows not to bother creatures with wings.

By late fall, they all spend time outside. Sheila no longer bothers fairies when outside. Anne does not say anything when she returns home. She only accuses Michael of opening the windows. Both parents are sad when they think that perhaps Sheila cannot see their world anymore. However, they feel she is safer as a normal child who cannot see their world.