An orphan visits an old woman who lives at the end of his street. As he approaches the house, he hears screaming from her basement that draws him in closer and beckons him to speak with the woman. He asks if she needs help. The woman takes a sip of whiskey from her mug and smiles, then hands him a seashell, saying that he can hear his mother in it. But the boy hears nothing besides the woman's laughter, just before he blacks out. Waking up, he finds the woman chanting above his body, gluing shells and starfish to him. Voices are calling to the boy, telling him he's their sweet baby boy. The boy is enticed into staying. The boy wakes up again, this time in another century, and finds the woman again, drinking whiskey on her porch. He smiles to see her now, because he speaks her language, and thus understands her. In the same way that the woman found a corpse to transform, the burden has now shifted into the boy's hands.