Introvert Pim lives with his ex-beauty queen single mother in a small town on the Belgian coast and spends his days drawing and dreaming up fantasy lives. He expresses his emerging desires through a secret collection of 'borrowed' objects that he keeps in a shoebox. With his teenage years comes sexual awakening and he now dreams of Gino, the older boy next door. His mother Yvette has dreams of her own: tired of unwanted suitors and bored with small-town life, she longs to leave everything behind and see the world. Pim and Yvette's dreams collide when the handsome Zoltan arrives in town with the funfair and becomes their new lodger.