Tom Odell was thinking a lot about family when he wrote his Jubilee Road album, and he had plenty of recollections from his childhood. One of his memories was a vague one of some china dolls that used to live in his grandma's spare bathroom. With their devilish eyes and Snow White skin, they used to terrify him. He recalled to The Sun:

"I think one night on Jubilee Road by imagination went a bit crazy, with them and I began imagining a sort of random scenario, where they came to life and got a bit out of control."

Odell added that he's "not entirely sure what the song is about. That's something the case with songwriting, you just let the words flow out and let listeners find their own meaning."