Starting a new life in rural Florida at the Kentucky Star Motel, reserved 10-year-old Rob Horton lets his imagination run wild, a contrast to his sad reality of a bullied boy who just lost his mother. One day, however, his reality is met with something more whimsical than his own mind can ever desire: a full-grown Bengal tiger, hidden in the woods and held captive by the mean-spirited motel owner, Beauchamp. With the help of a wise and mysterious maid, Willie May and the stubborn new girl in school Sistine, Rob must decide if to set the tiger free and in turn uncage his emotional grief.