After enduring family tragedies, young cousins Elsie and Frances spend time in rural England, where they see fairies in a nearby meadow. Pictures they take of the fairies suddenly gain international notoriety. Soon, Author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (O'Toole) announces he's a believer. However, magician Harry Houdini (Keitel) is a skeptic. Both join a media circus to see if the pictures indeed are genuine and if fairies are real.