Ten year old William Bellman takes aim at a rook with his catapult and his friends watch in awe as the impossible shot kills the bird. This is the first time death enters William's life; and the incident is soon forgotten in the riot of growing up. Years later, William is successful; married to a beautiful woman; he has a lovely healthy family and a thriving business. Then, one by one, his distant relatives begin to die - and at each funeral, there is a mysterious man in black present, who smiles at William. The deaths come closer to home - and closer...until a drunk and despairing William stumbles into the graveyard, where the mysterious man in black has a proposition for him - a business proposition...