Synopsis
11-year old Victor is both thrilled and mystified when his family moves into his grand-uncle’s somber mansion filled with African masks, taxidermy crocodile mounts - and a dark secret: Four decades ago, his grand-cousin Cecilia, at the same age as he is now, lost her life in the mansion’s impressive staircase, and the circumstances of her death still remain obscure.
Alone with his teenage sisters while his parents are travelling, Victor plays with his sword in front of the big mirror in the parlor - and is appalled when he sees the reflection of a masked man! A burglar? But how could he have gotten into the house when all doors were locked from inside?
Mrs. Debisch, the gruff, elderly housekeeper, thinks it was just Victor’s imagination running riot. Or is she trying to draw a veil over the truth? With his detective instinct kindled, he finds Cecila’s diary in a secret drawer of his grand-uncle’s desk. Her wax crayon drawings send shivers down his spine: He sees a little girl haunted throughout the mansion by a pair of glaring eyes, and on one picture she even seems to be pushed down the staircase!
Did Cecilia foresee her own death – her own murder? What was she trying to express talking in riddles and pictures? Victor makes a vow to unravel the mystery. Immersing into Cecilia’s world, he does not only discover one-way mirrors and secret passages, but also ways to handle his own fears.
While the grim-looking Mrs. Debisch is his prime suspect, everybody else seems to hide a secret, too: her middle-aged milksop son Friedrich, the shady neighbor Mr. Strichninsky, and the grand-uncle’s old friend, Mr. Opitz, who tends to spill the beans after having one too many. When Victor uncovers the truth, it turns out to be strikingly different from what he expected….