Paul Ryan got his high school girlfriend, Corrine, who was staying with her aunt in Janesville, pregnant like three times and had four children (including twins). Corrine decides to move the children and herself into her parents' mansion in Charlottesville, Virginia.
She writes letters to her mother, Olivia, pleading for shelter. Olivia agrees to let them stay on the condition that the children be kept hidden; she doesn't want their grandfather, Malcolm, to know about them. Corrine tells the children that she did something her parents disapproved of five years ago, so she is disinherited. However, her father is dying, and if she can win back his love, she will be the sole heir to a vast fortune. She also tells them that their real last name is Foxworth. They pack a few things and take the train to Virginia, leaving everything else behind. They make the secret path to Foxworth Hall, where they are escorted into small room below the attic by Olivia. Corrine promises to visit them the next day after she talks to her father. When Corrine does return, the children find that she has been savagely horse-whipped by Olivia, who tells the children that their parents were half-uncle and niece; their father had been Malcolm's half-brother. She says that if Corrine has any chance of winning back her father's love, it is that the children be kept hidden in the room until Malcolm dies, and by then, Corrine will receive her inheritance and be able to provide for the children.
At first, Corrine lavishes the children with expensive gifts and promises of a bright future, and visits them every day. She even attends secretarial school to learn the necessary skills to care for the children. However, as time goes by, she slowly stops visiting with her children and loses interest in them, particularly the twins who have almost stopped growing due to the stress of being locked up. The children are physically and emotionally abused by their grandmother, who calls them the "devil's spawn" and threatens them with severe punishment if they disobey her rules. Corrine continues to favor Chris, though her love for her favorite child does not motivate her to free them. After the first year, Corrine abruptly stops visiting with her children, leading Cathy and Chris to think something has happened to her, but Cathy later suspects that her mother has abandoned them.
The children initially spend their time reading and watching television, but then they decorate the attic with paper-made flowers to make it less scary for the twins. Cathy and Chris begins learning the basics to pursue their dreams; Cathy practices ballet and Chris reads dozens of books to become a doctor. Corrine's abandonment of the children forces them to rely on one another for comfort and friendship. This leads to a new family unit, with Cathy and Chris assuming the roles of mother and father for the twins and resolving to teach their siblings in a makeshift school room in the attic. After nearly two years of confinement, Cathy and Chris begin to enter puberty. Cathy becomes curious of the physical changes in her body; in one incident, she is admiring her naked body and Chris accidentally walks in on her. After getting over the initial shock, he proceeds to tell her how beautiful she is becoming. Their grandmother catches Chris watching Cathy and proudly proclaims them as sinners. She gives them an ultimatum: Chris must cut off all of Cathy's hair or all four children will starve for two weeks. When Chris refuses to comply, Olivia sneaks into the room, drugs Cathy in her sleep, and pours tar into her hair, which forces Chris to cut her hair off. The resulting starvation forces the children into desperate measures; Chris offers his blood to feed the twins and guts mice for him and Cathy to eat. Before they can eat the mice, their grandmother leaves them a basket of food, with additional powdered doughnuts.
Months later, Corrine suddenly returns and happily announces that she married her father's attorney, Bart Winslow, and was away on her honeymoon. Cathy and Chris are angry that their mother was on vacation while they nearly starved, but she shouts at them for thinking she doesn't care about them when she provides necessaries for them and refuses to visit with them until they apologize. Their grandmother continues to abuse them, and even whips both Cathy and Chris when he talks back at her. Due to their confinement, Cathy and Chris become sexually attracted to each other. They also begin plotting an escape. After distracting their mother during a visit, they take the room's key and make an impression of it in a bar of soap from which they carve a wooden copy. To finance their escape, they secretly steal jewels and money from their mother and stepfather. One night, Chris is ill, so Cathy goes alone. She encounters her stepfather sleeping in his chair. Curious and confused, she kisses him. Days later, Chris finds out about the kiss when he overhears his stepfather telling his mother about what he thought was a dream. Chris rapes Cathy in a jealous rage. Afterward, they feel tremendous guilt and shame. Chris sincerely apologizes to Cathy, who forgives him because she knew he didn't mean to do it. Chris professes his love to Cathy, and although she reciprocates his feelings, she is unsure of how to respond.
Soon after, Cory becomes seriously ill, and Cathy angrily persuades her mother to take him to the hospital. Corrine later tells them that Cory had died from pneumonia, leaving the older children devastated. Now desperate, Chris plans to take whatever money he can find in his mother's suite, but discovers that Corrine and Bart have left Foxworth Hall for good. Chris tells Cathy that he found out that he learned their grandfather died nine months ago after eavesdropping on the head butler, John Amos. Chris also tells her that he heard that their grandmother has been leaving food with arsenic to kill the mice in the attic. Realizing they are the "mice", Cathy and Chris take Carrie and slip out of Foxworth Hall before dawn to catch the train to Sarasota, Florida. At the train station, Chris reveals the final horror: their grandfather's will said that their mother would be disinherited if it is proven she had borne children from Paul Ryan or has any in the future. Their grandmother started leaving the food for them nine months ago, when their grandfather died and the will was read, therefore, it was their mother who made the decision to poison them.
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