Eleven-year-old Dylan has always believed that the sounds made by the monster in his closet were just a figment of his imagination. So he and Maggie, his younger sister, are amazed one day when the monster (named “Pete” by Maggie) not only comes out of the closet but turns out to be as big a fan of video games as Dylan is. But while Dylan plays his games in front of the television, the monster can actually go inside the video game he’s playing, to become a part of the action. While playing Dylan’s “Pieces Of Eight” pirate game, Pete has gotten stuck on a difficult level and needs help. The only way Dylan and Maggie can get Pete out of their room is to go with him—into the closet, and into the game, to try to finish it for him.

They discover it’s easier to get into the game than to get out, and once they’re a part of it, the game itself begins to change until it’s no longer as simple as finding treasure chests or dueling with evil pirates. In the course of their gaming adventure they learn a few things, like how to navigate at night by the stars, how not to look like a seal when a shark’s trying to eat you, and what can happen when you set fire to a can of WD-40 on a pirate ship. But they also learn how much they care about each other and how you sometimes have to make sacrifices to do what’s right - even if that’s tough to do when you’re having sword-fights with skeletons and escaping from pirate ships.