14 Ways to Die

Seventeen-year-old Jessica Simmons lives in the small English town of Doveton with her grief-stricken father. Ten years earlier, her mother was strangled in an alley 51 seconds from their home, the first victim of a serial killer Jess's father inadvertently named the Magpie Man. He told seven-year-old Jess that a man who collected beautiful things had "borrowed" her mother, and the name spread from Jess's schoolyard to the newspapers. Since then, the killer has murdered 12 more women, carving a sequential number into each victim's body and leaving no forensic evidence.

Jess auditions for The Eye, a new YouTube reality show in which five young people are each filmed live one day per week for a month, with the highest-rated participant earning a three-month extension. Selected as "Monday," Jess plans to use the platform to draw public attention to her mother's unsolved case and catch the killer. Her father, who has spent a decade barely leaving the house, initially refuses to sign the required paperwork but relents when Jess appeals to her mother's memory. Cameras are installed throughout the house, and Jess gives producers access to her phone and social media.

At a London meeting, Jess meets the other participants: Lucas Newman, a former child actor; Ella, a 17-year-old who claims to be pregnant despite never having had sex, pushed onto the show by her father, a priest; Ryan, whose brother was a gunman in a mass shooting; and Sonia, who reveals nothing about herself.

On her first live Monday, Jess delivers a speech naming her mother as the Magpie Man's first victim and directly challenging the killer. Among the responses, she connects with Ross, a 25-year-old whose mother was the fifth victim. They bond over shared grief, and Jess asks Ross to contact the families of all the other victims to assemble what she calls "the left behind."

Threatening texts soon arrive: "I'll kill you like I killed your mother" and "You will be number 14" (81-82). Police cannot trace the sender. Dad nearly ends the show but gives Jess two more weeks. One night, someone throws a brick through her bedroom window. She sees a hooded figure in the street and chases him toward the alley where her mother died, but Jamie, a 10th-grade neighbor watching her show live, grabs her and stops her. Wrapped around the brick is a drawing of a magpie and the number 14. Separately, someone slips a decade-old newspaper clipping about her mother into Jess's school bag.

When the hooded figure returns, Jamie tackles him, revealing Jess's own cameraman, Michael. Michael confesses to the threats, the brick, and the staged harassment, all done to boost ratings, but denies planting the newspaper clipping. Jess quietly replaces him.

Jess's theology class goes on a retreat to Mayfield Lodge, a rural monastery. She reconnects with Bernie, her childhood best friend who drifted away after the murder. An elderly resident named Reg advises Jess to stop drowning in grief and start living. On the last night, Bernie drinks an entire bottle of vodka and is found unconscious; she survives after emergency CPR. When Jess unpacks at home, she finds a second clipping in her suitcase, confirming someone at the retreat, not Michael, is planting them.

While Jess is away, all four other contestants redirect their audiences to her channel. Her subscribers surge past one million, earning her the three-month extension. For her next episode, Jess applies her dead mother's old makeup and dyes her hair black to resemble her. Among the live comments, one reads: "Wrong perfume." Only someone who knew her mother's specific perfume could have posted this. Jess becomes convinced the real Magpie Man is watching.

A 14th victim, Lorna Banks, is found in London two months earlier than the killer's usual cycle. Public backlash targets Jess for provoking him. Lorna's mother, Frances, arrives at Jess's door to blame her but stays for tea, her anger dissolving into shared grief. Jess gives Frances the number to her father's old cell phone, which Jess has secretly been using as a second, producer-free line.

Ross finishes contacting the families, and on a Monday, 43 relatives gather in Jess's backyard. Dad surprises Jess by joining them and speaking on camera for the first time. Jess distributes red T-shirts bearing the word "ALIVE," and the image makes the evening news. The killer responds: A 15th victim is found in Sheffield with the word "DEAD" carved into her body alongside the number 15.

Among her messages, a girl named Clara claims to know the killer's real name but hangs up in terror during a phone call and stops responding. Jess identifies her as Clara Farrell, a fifth grader at a nearby school. Meanwhile, on a live Monday, Jess catches her English teacher, Mr. Collins, slipping a newspaper clipping into her bag. She searches his car on camera, finds a collection of articles about her mother, and police take Mr. Collins for questioning.

The real breakthrough comes when Jess finds an old digital camera her father kept in an untouched box. The memory card holds photos from the day her mother died, including one of a man shielding his face with a Polaroid camera. Jess and Jamie visit Clara's house while the family is out. Through the window, Jess sees a family portrait: Bernie, her mother, her stepdad, and Clara. Bernie and Clara are half-sisters. Inside, Jamie finds a supermarket receipt from Sheffield timestamped at 3:14 a.m. the night of the 15th murder. Jess notices Bernie's bedroom door dented and splintered from the outside, evidence of violence. The killer is Elliot Farrell, Bernie's stepdad.

Before they can leave, Farrell arrives home and captures them. He ties them up, loads them into his car trunk, and drives to the cemetery. Forcing them to kneel at Jess's mother's grave, he plans to stage a double suicide. He confesses that his first kill was a man whose death was ruled a suicide the day before Jess's mother died. He had burned his bloodied clothes, and Jess's mother, his neighbor, photographed the fire. He killed her to silence a potential witness, even though her photos were too blurry to reveal anything.

When Farrell cuts Jess's ropes to force a knife into her hand, she breaks free and runs. Unable to call for help without revealing her position, she uses her secret phone to signal Dad with an emergency ring code her grandmother established: three rings, hang up; two rings, hang up; three rings. Dad answers and races to the cemetery. Moments after Farrell drags Jess back, Dad crashes into him, pins him to the ground, and beats him until Jess tells him to stop. Police arrive and arrest Elliot Farrell.

Mr. Collins is cleared; he later explains he was a childhood friend of Jess's mother and planted the articles as misguided encouragement. Elliot Farrell is convicted of 16 murders. Bernie tells Jess she always knew her stepdad was abusive but never suspected he was a killer; Clara had witnessed something but was too afraid to speak.

On the day of the verdict, Dad gives Jess a check saved from years of night-shift wages. They hold a private candle ceremony, silently speaking to Jess's mother. Jess records a final statement for the show, declares she wants to become a therapist, and looks toward a future defined not only by loss but by the life ahead. She reconnects with Bernie and begins a relationship with Jamie. Dad, still broken in many ways, shows the first signs of genuine recovery.