For years, Abe Portman has told stories to his grandson Jake about his childhood surviving in World War II, battling monsters and living at a secret home for children on Cairnholm, an island off the coast of Wales. According to Abe, the home's children and their headmistress Miss Alma Peregrine possess paranormal abilities and are known as "Peculiars". When Jake turns sixteen, he responds to a panicked phone call from Abe and goes to his house to find him dying with his eyes removed. Abe tells him to go to "the loop of September 3, 1943". After Abe dies, Jake glimpses a monster exactly like the ones described in Abe's stories hiding in the forest.