In 1962, a woman moves to a small town with her two children to open a diner. She enlists the help of her aunt Zena, a zany ex-vaudeville magician. When the kids get in trouble with a cranky neighbor, Aunt Zena decides to give the old guy a good scare; using her techniques of illusion, she produces some convincing ghostlike apparitions -- so convincing, in fact, that word of Zena's power spreads, and people, in a panic over the Cuban Missile Crisis, come to her from all over in search of a miracle.