Trama

After Eva Snyder becomes an orphan, she comes to live with the elderly Mississippi riverboat Captain King Snyder and his old-maid daughter Nell. While the Captain is piloting his boat, Nell finds it difficult to govern Eva, who constantly talks to imaginary friends whom Eva believes are real, including Mingo and her father Mr. Peppercorn. When the Captain returns, he presents Eva with a gift--a black doll named Numa. Nell hears Eva chatting and playing with Numa, but suspects that it is a child from the neighborhood. Eva warns that if Nell takes Numa away, Eva will trade places with Numa and go to the idyllic place "Where the Woodbine Twineth." When Nell puts Numa on top of the player piano, Eva steals Numa away, and the piano mysteriously plays by itself. Nell finds Eva in the backyard with a black-girl playmate, and Nell chases the girl away, warning her to never return. Then Eva disappears. When Nell finds a doll in Numa's box that looks exactly like Eva, she tearfully realizes what has happened.—Lew Amack / edited by Rob

Recently orphaned five-year-old Eva arrives to live with her riverboat captain grandfather and his spinster daughter, Nell, at their estate somewhere in the southern United States. As Eva's aunt, Nell is dedicated to the idea of raising Eva in the absence of her now deceased brother. Nell soon discovers that Eva is prone to saying things that Nell attributes to an overactive imagination.

On her first night at the house, Eva states that she's anxiously awaiting the arrival of her friend Mingo, who she says is "big enough to live in a bird cage, but small enough to have a frog for a horse." Later, Eva tells Nell that Mingo arrived with her family, containing members she refers to as Mr. Peppercorn, Sam, and Popo. She tells Nell that they live under the davenport in the parlor, to which Nell responds by taking an umbrella and sweeping underneath. Eva reacts in horror, and later tells Nell that she has driven her friends away, as well as broken Sam's leg.

This clash of wills frustrates Nell, who expected Eva to behave as she did when she was that age. Nell claims she was obedient and knew how to "make herself useful" to adults, even though she was very young. Eva finds understanding only in the housekeeper, Suse, who lives at the estate with her husband Jesse. Suse listens to Eva's ramblings and indulges the child, even though she also seems to not believe what Eva is saying. Nell's stubborn refusals prompt Eva to say on several occasions "You never believe me when I tell you what's real." Eva remains despondent over the fact that Nell has driven off her "friends".

Eva's grandfather returns from a riverboat trip to New Orleans with a gift for Eva: a medium sized, dark-skinned doll in a box. Eva reacts with joy, immediately crying out "Numa!" She claims Mr. Peppercorn returned for just a moment and told her that even though he and Mingo and the others would never return, they would send Eva a friend named Numa. Nell is frustrated even more by the fact that Eva refuses to admit that her imaginary friends are not real.

Eva and the doll are immediately inseparable, and Nell is confronted on several occasions by the idea that some other child is visiting Eva. She keeps hearing two distinct voices when Eva is off playing, but every time she goes to see who is with Eva, Eva is simply there alone with her doll, Numa. When Nell demands to know who is playing with Eva, she can only respond that it is Numa, to which Nell reacts with increasing hostility. Eva states to Nell that Numa told her if Nell ever made her leave, she'd take Eva with her to a place she calls "Where the Woodbine Twineth". Eva tells Suse about some of the games she and Numa play, including one she calls "doll". Eva says that sometimes Numa gets tired of being a doll, so they trade places: Eva becomes a doll, and Numa places her in the box and plays with her.

Finally one night, Nell takes the doll away from Eva and puts it on top of the pianola in the parlor, where Eva cannot reach it. Eva is devastated, because Nell tells her she can't have the doll back until she admits that another child has been meeting Eva in secret and playing games with her. She sends Eva to her room, and the player piano mysteriously starts playing by itself.

Before leaving to go out for the evening, Nell locks the parlor so Eva cannot retrieve the doll, but Eva sneaks downstairs and finds the key. When Nell returns, she is alarmed and angry that the door has been unlocked and Numa is missing, along with Eva. She awakens Suse and Jesse, but she hears Eva playing in the dark behind the estate. Hearing the other child with her, Nell takes a switch with her and prepares to confront the children. Sneaking up on them as they play underneath a tree with low-hanging branches, she sees a black child about Eva's age, with Eva nowhere in sight. The little girl seems to be mute, and she reacts with terror when Nell starts hitting her ankles with the switch and cruelly orders her to "go back where she belongs". She runs off and looks back hesitantly, but Nell tells her to leave and never come back. She runs away.

Calling for Eva, Nell screams in horror when she discovers the doll's box, not with Numa inside, but with a new white doll that is clearly the image of Eva. Nell runs into the darkness calling for Numa to come back, realizing too late that what Eva was saying was the truth. With Numa gone forever, Eva isn't able to change back into human form, frozen forever as a doll.