The sheriff pulls up to the elementary school where a shooting has happened. She works through a crowd of reporters and parents, slips under the crime-scene tape, and catches up with a male deputy. She tells him to not let any parents in. She then goes inside and talks to the female deputy, who says that no kids were hurt and that they’re all in the cafeteria. She explains that the shooter was a former janitor who used to be in a relationship with a fourth-grade teacher but then got fired and broken up with, thus leading to today’s shooting which happened in the fourth-grade teacher’s second-floor classroom; the shooting was stopped when a second-grade teacher came up with a textbook, knocked the shooter down, and managed to disarm and restrain him with other teachers who came along. Although the shooter is handcuffed and locked away in the nurse’s room, the female deputy says that everyone in the second-grade teacher’s classroom is missing.

The sheriff decides to go to the school library to talk to the second-grade teacher. The female deputy says that his kids are fine, but the sheriff still asks her and the other cops to scour every inch of the school to find them. On the way there, however, she’s stopped by her ex, a defense attorney, who’s asking where his daughter is. She tells him he can’t be here, and he says he just wants to see his daughter, whom the sheriff knows and once felt very close to. Eventually, she says that she’ll ask around and see if he can get a phone call with his daughter’s teacher. He says that her teacher is the second-grade teacher. She storms away and promises to find her.

The cops haven’t yet found the kids. In the school library, she asks the teacher where they are. He says they’re away but safe. He remains stubborn despite the sheriff’s questioning, after which she tells the other cops not to let him go unless the kids are returned. She then goes to his classroom to try to find evidence, but she sees nothing. Eventually, she finds a strange-colored leaf, but the female deputy comes in and briefs her before she does. She says there are no signs of kids hiding anywhere in the school, though they will try to get the school’s blueprints for a more thorough look. The female deputy also says that surveillance footage doesn’t show them disappearing anywhere.

The sheriff asks to see footage of the second-grade teacher disarming the shooter. As she watches it, she sees the teacher briefly saying something to the shooter while he’s pinned down by a security guard. The sheriff then goes to see the shooter in the nurse’s room. She offers to give him a lighter sentence if he helps her out by telling her what the second-grade teacher told him. He says that the second-grade teacher only told him not to threaten his kids, after which he says the second-grade teacher runs his classroom like he owns the place. He then recalls a time when he accidentally stepped into his classroom, saw a burst of light, and was forced out; he was so freaked out by what he saw that he pulled out his flask in the hallway to take a drink, after which the principal caught him and fired him.

Suspecting something strange is going on, the sheriff goes outside and finds her ex. He asks her to show her pictures that his daughter drew for the second-grade teacher. It confirms what she’s thinking. She runs inside, grabs the strange-colored leaf from the second-grade teacher’s classroom, and confronts him once again. She proposes her theory, which is that the second-grade teacher can open a portal to an imaginary world where he and his students can sometimes get away to, which is where he must be hiding them now in wake of the shooting. The second-grade teacher doesn’t deny it, instead saying that the real world is cruel and not fit for children to live in, that an imaginary world would be much better suited for their protection. She says that he still has no right to take away children from the real world. He offers to bring them back on one condition.

The sheriff gives the second-grade teacher two minutes in his classroom alone. She and the other cops are waiting inside, ready to burst in after two minutes if the kids don’t return. The sheriff then sees a flash of light under the door, which then disappears when the two minutes are almost up. She hears children laughing. When she heads inside, she sees all of the missing kids, as well as a small portal to the imaginary world which fades away before she can even think about it. The second-grade teacher is nowhere to be found.

The shooting incident is wrapped up nicely, as the parents and kids are reunited, and the shooter is apprehended. No one seems to mind that the second-grade teacher has disappeared, and a new one comes in to take his place. While the case of his disappearance remains open, no one looks into it any further. Now, somewhat back with her ex, she reads the second-grade teacher’s old fantasy books to his daughter. Time and time again, the sheriff hears about the second-grade teacher, how he’s sometimes out and about, here and there.