The Boy Outside tells the story of a young woman named Marianne and the one terrifying night she spends taking care of her father, John. It opens with Marianne pulling into the driveway of her father's house when she spots him standing outside, seemingly in a confused daze. He tells her that he is looking for the little boy he heard crying outside, but Marianne does not see or hear anyone. Later, while playing a game of poker and, against Marianne's better judgment, sharing a drink of whisky with him, John, again, insists that he can hear a little boy crying outside. Marianne doesn't hear a thing, but, she tells him not to worry as she will attend to the boy and sends him off to bed. That night, Marianne wakes up to the sound of John's voice coming from the bedroom. She finds her father looking out the bedroom window, apparently watching the hurt little boy on the street outside, but, once again, nobody is really out there. Marianne, now worried for her father's health, suggests that he come stay with her for a few days so that he is not alone. John stubbornly insists that he is just fine and he refuses her offer. Marianne decides to leave. Just as she gets ready to start her car out on the driveway, she finally hears it: the sound of a crying little boy exactly as her father described. She follows the sound as it leads her back into the house and, eventually, back to her father's bedroom. She finds John once again in a trance-like state. As she embraces him, worried that she's lost him for good, he opens his mouth. And the sound of a crying little boy emerges from her father.