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Thirteen-year-old Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster) lives with her poet father Lester in a secluded house in the village of Wells Harbor on the coast of Maine. At least, that's what she tells anyone who comes asking about them. In reality, Rynn lives alone, and it's becoming harder and harder to keep her secret from her snoopy landlady Cora Hallet (Alexis Smith), Hallet's creepy son Frank (Martin Sheen), concerned Officer Ron Miglioriti (Mort Shuman), and magician friend Mario Podesta (Scott Jacoby).

Yes. The movie is based on the novel, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1974) by American author Laird Koenig. The title is a reference to the last line of the English nursery rhyme Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. Koenig also adapted the novel into a stage play.

She was driving a 1955 Bentley S-Type. See photo here.

After visiting Mario in the hospital, Rynn returns home. She is later awakened during the night by a loud noise. She goes downstairs to find Frank Hallet emerging through the trapdoor into the cellar. He shows her a hairpin and a bright red fingernail tip that he found down there, tying her to the murder of his mother, and attempts to blackmail her into a sexual relationship with him. Seeming to accept the fact that she didn't know how to survive as well as she thought she did, Rynn goes into the kitchen to make Frank and herself a cup of tea. Just before she brings out the tea tray, she sprinkles cyanide into a red cup. She then pours the tea, giving Frank the tea in a white cup and keeping the red cup for herself. As she is about to take a sip from the red cup, Frank stops her and demands that they switch cups. Rynn complies, and Frank drinks the tea in the red cup, commenting on how it tastes like almonds. "It must be the almond cookies," Rynn assures him. Shortly thereafter, Frank begins to cough. In the final scene, he reaches up his hand to stroke her hair, then his hand alowly drops away, leaving Rynn to stare past the blazing fire in the fireplace as the credits roll past.

Those who have both seen the movie and read the book report that the movie is more or less a faithful rendition of the book, even down to the dialogue. However, there are two changes that were made to the story, one regarding the cyanide and the other regarding Mrs Hallet's death. In the movie, Rynn tells Mario that she did not know what was in the little bottle that she gave to her mother until afterwards. In the novel, she knew perfectly well it was cyanide. Also in the film, Mrs. Hallet is killed by accident when the cellar door strikes her and she tumbles back into the cellar. In the novel, Rynn locks her in the cellar and feeds a hose into the cellar. She blows out the pilot light to the heater and directs the escaping gas into the cellar, killing Mrs. Hallet. Most likely, the producers wanted to make Rynn more sympathetic to audiences, which is why these changes were made to an otherwise very faithful adaptation.