It's 1973, and eight year-old Bobby Burke still clings to the belief that his father, MIA in Vietnam for three years, will come home. So long as he wears his magical Safekeeper bracelet with his father's name engraved on it, Bobby will see his dad again some day. Bobby's mom Judy, on the other hand, has started to move past her loss. There's a new man in her life - Nick - and Bobby fears that Nick will make Judy forget all about Bobby's dad. Such are the circumstances of Bobby's life as, out exploring one day in the woods, he comes upon a drainage tunnel with the words "The Tolltaker" scrawled on the outside. Curious, Bobby ducks inside the tunnel to check it out. This is Bobby's entry into the domain of The Tolltaker, a hideous walking cadaver that roams the underworld, demanding a toll from all whom it encounters. When The Tolltaker comes upon Bobby, it makes no exception. Bobby runs, but finds that, once The Tolltaker has set its sights on a toll, it won't give up until it gets it. When a war-weary stranger turns up on their doorstep with news of Bobby's dad half a world away, Bobby is thrown into a final confrontation with his mom, Nick and The Tolltaker - whose toll, it turns out, is simply too high a price for Bobby to pay.