Lost and Found / Story guide
The plan
The plan for Lost and Found: who's in it, where it happens, and how the story is meant to go. Nothing's written yet, so all of this will change as it gets written. Anything past the setup is folded under a spoiler.
Characters
John Walker
Accountant, husband and father; the point-of-view character
John is forty and works at Rainier Accounting Group. His days run on repeat, and somewhere along the way he drifted from his wife and kids without quite noticing.
Spoilers
On a lunchtime walk he finds a glowing door in the woods and steps through. A few minutes on the other side cost him days at home, and he comes back to police at the house and a frantic family. He hides the truth, can't stop thinking about going back, and finally tells Rachel. The door he wanted as an escape ends up being the way back to his family.
Rachel
John's wife
Rachel holds the household together. She's strong-willed and carries most of the day-to-day weight while John drifts.
Spoilers
John's unexplained disappearance leaves her overwhelmed, and his obsession with the door afterward worries her. She wants the family whole again, and in the end she chooses to face the other world alongside him rather than stand against him.
Emma
John and Rachel's teenage daughter
Emma is a teenager living mostly online, pulling away from her parents and looking for independence.
Spoilers
The trip through the door forces her to engage with her family. She turns out to be resilient when it counts, and learns to lean on her parents instead of away from them.
Liam
John and Rachel's younger son
Liam is quiet and would rather be in a video game than in the room with his family.
Spoilers
The world beyond the door brings out a bravery and curiosity nobody knew he had. He wants to prove he's useful, and the danger they share draws him close to his dad.
Charlie
The family's Airedale Terrier
Charlie is the Walkers' Airedale Terrier, an ordinary, loyal family dog.
Spoilers
On the other side of the door, Charlie can talk. His loyalty doesn't change; he uses his new voice to guide and protect the family through the mirror town and the fight with Mr. Stone.
Mr. Stone
Ruler of the mirror town
Mr. Stone runs the frozen mirror town on the far side of the door and holds its inhabitants under his control.
Spoilers
He keeps the shadow people trapped by feeding on their fear and making false promises, of a return to life or of peace. He sees the Walkers as a threat to his hold on the town. The family's light, wits and unity finally break his power.
Places
Rainier Accounting Group
John's workplace
The accounting firm where John spends his monotonous working days.
Spoilers
It stands for the routine John feels trapped in, and it's on a lunch break from here that he walks into the woods and finds the door.
The woods
Where the door stands
The stretch of woods John walks through on his lunch break.
Spoilers
The glowing door is here, and it's the way the whole family later goes through together.
The world beyond the door
The other world
A peaceful, beautiful world unlike John's own, on the far side of the glowing door.
Spoilers
On John's first visit it is serene. When the family goes through together it has changed, turned strange and eerie, and it leads them to the mirror town.
The mirror town
Mr. Stone's domain
An abandoned town on the far side of the door, a distorted reflection of the real world, frozen in time.
Spoilers
Its frozen state mirrors John's life before the door. The shadow people are trapped here under Mr. Stone, and it's where the final showdown happens.
Things
The glowing door
The portal between worlds
A door, glowing, standing in the woods where no door should be.
Spoilers
It opens onto a world where time runs faster than at home: minutes inside are days back in John's world. It stands for escape from the ordinary and for the big choices that change a life.
Flashlights and glow sticks
The family's weapons
Ordinary light sources the Walkers bring with them.
Spoilers
Light turns out to weaken Mr. Stone, and the family builds its plan around flashlights and glow sticks to break his grip and wake the shadow people up to his lies.
Groups
The Shadow People
The trapped inhabitants of the mirror town
The shadow people are the former residents of the mirror town, caught in a shadowy state between one thing and another.
Spoilers
They long to move on but are too afraid of death and the unknown, and Mr. Stone uses that fear to keep them. They mirror John's own stuck life. When Stone is defeated, the family helps them find peace and move on.
Story beats
Show the planned beatsSpoilers for the whole plan
Act One: John's Boring Life
- Stuck on repeat
John grinds through his days at Rainier Accounting Group, distant from Rachel, Emma and Liam.
- A door in the woods
On a lunchtime walk he finds a glowing door in the woods and, after hesitating, steps through.
Act Two: The Glowing Door and Missing Time
- A peaceful world
John explores a beautiful, serene world where a few minutes feel like nothing.
- Missing for days
He comes home to police at the house and a family worried sick; he's been gone for days.
- The cover story
The police interview him about the disappearance and he spins a cover story, but he can't stop planning a way back.
Act Three: The Family Joins
- Telling Rachel
John tells Rachel about the door, and the whole family, Charlie included, goes through together.
- Charlie talks
On the other side, the family's Airedale can speak.
- A changed world
The world is no longer serene; it has turned strange and eerie.
- The mirror town
They find an abandoned mirror town frozen in time, ruled by Mr. Stone and haunted by shadow people.
Act Four: Mr. Stone's Control
- False promises
The family learns Stone keeps the shadow people trapped by exploiting their fear with false promises of life or peace.
- The family's plan
United by the danger, they plan to expose his lies, using flashlights and glow sticks to weaken him and spark a rebellion.
Act Five: The Final Showdown
- The confrontation
The family carries out the plan and faces Mr. Stone in the mirror town.
- Stone defeated
Their wits, the light and their unity break Stone's hold, and the shadow people are freed to move on.
- Home, changed
The Walkers come back through the door changed and closer than they have ever been.