Ten-year old Pollye Franklin befriends a strange young man who cannot speak but who can communicate with birds by whistling beautiful bird calls. Later, the community is terrorized by a masked intruder who enters the bedrooms of sleeping women and cuts swatches of their hair, then quietly leaves. The young man is the prime suspect but the police can find no evidence justifying his arrest. To protect him from vigilantes, the Sheriff permits the young man to sleep each night in the jail. Several nights later, while the young man is safely in jail, the Midnight Barber strikes again, this time murdering his victim. Relieved that her friend could not be the Barber, Pollye accidentally discovers evidence incriminating the real murderer. Unfortunately, the murderer is watching her and quickly captures, binds and gags her. Later that night he carries her to a fish processing plant, intending to dispose of her in a giant pulverizing machine. The horrors that follow lead Pollye down dark pathways that no ten-year old should have to walk.