Henry Butler is a professional athlete with a little Pete Rose in him. His athletic interests go beyond the playing field and into the gambling dens. Convicted for his addiction, the soccer player is assigned to community service at a children's home as a condition of his parole. The home attempts to exploit his soccer skills by forming a team. Butler takes no interest, though, until the home burns down and the team begins playing for their homes instead of personal pride or a payoff.

Mildred Hubble is a young witch attending Cackles Academy. She's called the "Worst Witch" because she's always caught getting into trouble.

In the 1950s, young boys were placed in orphanages and endure harsh and austere living conditions. As a united group, they supported each other and survived despite bullying, hardship and little hope for better days. While these children were doing their best to survive, they had no way to suspect the secret dealings between the clergy, the medical profession and the government that will inevitably seal their fates. The institution faced with a precarious financial situation, the solution is to transform the orphanage into a psychiatric institute in order to obtain additional subsidies. To demonstrate the need for this change in status, the orphans are labeled as insane by the very people who took them in to help them. While their future as orphans was already precarious, they become prisoners of an asylum system from which they have little hope of being able to free themselves even as they grow older.