A phantasmagorical concoction about a mad scientist
(Daniel Emilfork) who lives on an oil rig and kidnaps
children so he can steal their dreams, believing this will
prevent his premature aging. Keeping him company
are his wife (a strange dwarf), their twelve children
(identically cloned in his image and who suffer from
sleeping sickness) and a wise old brain (with a propensity
for headaches) that floats in a tank. Meanwhile on land,
a huge kindly oaf of a man (Ron Perlman) -- while
searching for his brother who's been kidnapped – meets
a nine-year-old girl (Judith Vittet) who’s the leader of a
wild bunch of orphans. Their tender relationship grows
and they meet even more bizarre characters as they
eventually make their way across the dark water to the
rig.