Is anybody there? Introduction to the story.

The story took place in England in the 1980 s. Edward is a ten-year-old boy, and his parents run a nursing home. While his mother was doing her homework diligently, his father was caught in a middle-aged crisis. Edward usually likes to make videos of the elderly in the old people's homes. He is curious about what will happen to these old people after they die. One day, he met Clarence, a new old man. Clarence is a retired magician. Old people and young people have a deeper understanding of life through mutual communication. A lonely little boy lives in an "old people's home" operated by a family business model. He believes that after death, he will become a ghost and continue to float in this world. Because he was too stubborn in this belief, he gradually lost contact with real life. Time goes back to 1987. For a small town on the coast of England, Christmas means an annual celebration. However, Edward (bill milner), a 10-year-old boy who lives here, obviously has no expression of celebrating the festival. His father (david morrissey) and his mother (Anne-Marie Duff) run a nursing home-an old people's home, although the permanent residents in the old people's home include Bob (Peter Vaughan), a veteran of World War I, who is easily nervous, Elsee (rosemary harris), a timid and confused Aina (Hilma Barlow). The vicious and bossy Lillian (Sylvia sams) and Reggie (Leslie Phillips), who calls himself a romantic old man ... However, for a little boy like Edward, these old people and women living in the "home for the elderly" also provide an opportunity for Edward, who is smart and full of curiosity, to explore the world after death ... Edward is constantly convinced that ghosts will continue to exist after death, but people can't see them with the naked eye, so he secretly puts the "no-lying" tape recorder on. Unfortunately, so far, immersed in this situation, Edward has either stayed in his room alone or gone to school. He listens to tapes whenever he has time, hoping to hear some inhuman noises. He even brought his fascination with the supernatural world to school, which greatly reduced his Excellence among his classmates. At this time, an old man in the "nursing home" died, and Edward thought he should seize this opportunity, so he came up with the idea of moving to the living room for the elderly ... but Edward was disappointed again, because Clarence Parkinson (michael caine) moved in soon. He used to be a magician, and now he is still immersed in unbearable grief over the loss of his wife. As time went on, Edward gradually learned something about Clarence's past. This magician, who was once called "the incredible Clarence", was completely passionate about life because of the death of his wife and assistant Anne. Clarence actually believed Edward's story and admitted that there were ghosts in this world, which also made him sit up and take notice of this elderly man. Soon, the relationship between these two seemingly incompatible "aliens" in the "nursing home" became closer and closer. Looking at this little boy immersed in supernatural phenomena, Clarence decided to "return to his old job" and use his magic assistant Edward to return to real life.