Basically the story revolves around Lucy (aka the girl who cried wolf), who tells her family about the wolves lurking behind the wallpapers. Her relatives however dismissed her fears as a product of her overactive imagination, and they are actually too engrossed into their own worlds to deal with Lucy: her mother (like any mother) is a personification of domestic order, her oblivious father plays tuba, and her annoying brother plays video games.
“She didn’t know exactly how it all started, but it began soon after they had moved into this old building last spring. She hardly gave the first few occurrences a thought. Because Anders had torn off wallpaper throughout the apartment, revealing closets that had been nailed shut, everything seemed unsettled.”