This is about a Canadian boy who lives in a squalid tenement with his crazy family. He takes refuge in an imaginative world he makes. Part of that world includes his "bug collection," a collection of jars full of invertebrates and other animals that he keeps in a small basement lit by candles. His mentally unbalanced sister Rita is calmed by being near his collection, so she stays there guarding the creatures.

As part of Leolo's collection, we see two Eastern Newts behind glass.