This causes Lucius to grow more determined, and he again goes to the elders to request again to travel to "the towns." Lucius believes that if the creatures allowed Noah into the woods without causing him harm, they will do the same to him. They do not grow in the village, and Lucius believes that Noah has traveled into the woods, and has not been harmed by the creatures in it. One day, while in a small area near the border to the woods, Noah presents Ivy with some red berries. Blind since she was very young, Ivy claims that Lucius has a 'color' around him, that she can sense. Lucius has been childhood friends with Kitty's youngest sister, named Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard). When Kitty Walker (Judy Greer) comes to Lucius in hopes he will marry her, he refuses her request. He keeps to himself, rarely speaking to most people. Lucius himself is considered a rather strange young man by the village. His request is quickly denied by the village elders. After one of the elders named August Nicholson (Brendan Gleeson) loses his son to an untreatable disease, one of the town's young people named Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix) goes to the village elders, and requests to leave the village and travel to "the towns," in hopes of finding medicines and other remedies that may prevent further losses, or possibly cure the mental ailments of one of the town's other young persons, named Noah Percy (Adrien Brody). A boundary was set up around the village, along with warnings on etiquette and colors to wear regarding keeping the creatures at bay. Many years earlier, the town elders and the creatures reached an understanding that the villagers would not go into the woods, and the creatures would not enter the village. The woods that surround the village are off limits to all the villagers because mysterious creatures live there.
Covington is a 19th-century Pennsylvania village that is isolated from the rest of the world.The synopsis below may give away important plot points.