The Block Party

The annual Memorial Day block party on Alton Road begins with its organizer, Alexandra “Alex” Fox, drinking heavily. Stressed from planning the event and a recent argument with her husband, Nick, she confronts a pest control salesman known as “Bug Man,” whom she suspects of past vandalism. Soon after, Alex collides with Nick, spilling wine on him and sparking a fight about her drinking. As she backs away from him, Alex trips and falls into a kiddie pool, embarrassing herself in front of her neighbors. Nick angrily tells her to go home. Alex complies, falls asleep on her couch, and is later awakened by police sirens. A post on a local online forum reveals that a homicide has occurred at the party.

The narrative shifts to the block party one year earlier. Alex’s sister, Emily Adair, a real estate agent, shows a vacant house on the cul-de-sac to the Kumar family: Samir, a psychiatrist; Mandy, a psychologist; and their teenage son, Jay. Emily’s husband, Ken Adair, makes an elaborate show of welcoming them. During the introduction, both Alex and Emily notice an undeniable spark of attraction between Ken and Mandy. Meanwhile, Alex’s daughter, Lettie, is reluctantly attending the party while grounded for half the summer. She was suspended for spray-painting “Bite Me!” on the school gym in protest of the dress code. Lettie knows her former best friend, Riley Thompson, identified her from a security camera photo by a distinctive birthmark. At the vacant house, Lettie meets Jay, and they bond over being misfits, as Jay reveals he was kicked out of college. Lettie tells him about her plan to write a school paper on revenge inspired by Riley, and Jay suggests that taking revenge is more satisfying than simply writing about it.

That summer, Emily grows convinced that Ken and Mandy are having an affair. She attempts to sabotage the Kumars’ house sale by trying to plant a rotting banana peel in a curtain rod, hoping the smell will deter them. Alex intervenes, and Emily confesses that Ken cheated on her 15 years ago. Alex calms her sister and promises to tell her if she sees anything suspicious. Lettie asks Jay to help her get revenge on Riley. He agrees, and they begin to plot. Alex’s own suspicions grow when she sees Ken sneaking through the woods behind the Kumar house. Her neighbor, Willow Thompson, confides that her estranged husband, Evan, has been making large, unexplained cash withdrawals from their joint account.

Lettie and Jay put their plan into action after Nick allows the still-grounded Lettie to go to a movie with Jay. Using a GPS tracker he placed in Riley’s car, they follow her to a bar in another town. They witness and record a drunken Riley kissing an older, unidentified man. Lettie forbids Jay from posting the video online, not wanting to hurt her cousin, Dylan Adair, who is Riley’s boyfriend. Jay then reveals he has followed Riley before and found a bottle of opioids in her car. Later in the summer, the women of Alton Road hold a “ladies’ night.” When Alex and her neighbor Brooke Bailey try to invite Mandy, they are rebuffed by a controlling Samir. At the party, the women play “Two Truths and a Lie,” revealing several secrets: Brooke has a stalker, Emily hired a private investigator to spy on Ken, and Willow reveals that Evan is not Riley’s biological father.

In the autumn, Lettie follows Riley to a hotel and sees her meet the older man again. She tells Jay, who then confides in Lettie about the traumatic drowning of his two-year-old brother, Asher, years ago, an event for which he feels responsible. Tensions rise in the neighborhood. Alex overhears a loud fight between Samir and Mandy. On Halloween, Alex’s dog, Zoe, goes missing and returns with a threatening note in her collar that reads, “Back off or you’ll regret it.” Later that night, Ken confronts Bug Man for soliciting during trick-or-treating, and Evan intervenes, intimidating Bug Man with a chilling monologue. Alex later discovers a sexually explicit photo of Brooke on Nick’s phone. Nick explains that Ken found Brooke on the website OnlyFans and shared the pictures with the men at their poker game. When Alex warns Brooke, Brooke confides that her late husband, Jerry Bailey, was abusive and repeatedly raped her. Meanwhile, Riley tells Lettie she discovered Evan is not her biological father through a DNA test. They visit a DNA relative, who informs them that Riley’s biological father was a musician named Stevie “the Wookiee” Wachowski, who died years ago. Soon after, Dylan receives an anonymous message with the photo of Riley and her older lover.

On New Year’s Eve, Lettie’s attempt to reconcile Dylan and Riley at a party ends badly. Later that night, Jay sees Dylan collapse outside and calls Lettie. They find Dylan unresponsive from an opioid overdose. Jay administers Narcan, saving his life. At the hospital, police reveal the pills came from a prescription bottle belonging to Evan Thompson. Riley, distraught after being dumped by her married lover, realizes Dylan must have stolen her phone and the pills from her purse at the party. Dylan confesses to Lettie that he is being blackmailed over an embarrassing video and stole Emily’s emerald necklace to pay the blackmailer. He admits to taking Riley’s phone but claims he lost it. Lettie asks Jay to find the blackmailer.

In the spring, after being pulled over by the police, a terrified Alex calls Nick and admits she has a drinking problem, subsequently getting sober. She learns Lettie was accepted to USC and lied about being rejected; Nick agrees to support her choice. Alex also discovers Evan is Brooke’s stalker when Willow finds a secret shrine of photos in his darkroom. Lettie confesses everything to Alex: the revenge plot, Riley’s drug use and affair, and Dylan’s blackmail. They go to Emily’s house and find Samir confronting Ken with security footage of a secret meeting with Mandy, which leads to a massive argument. Lettie later hears gunshots from Dylan’s yard and finds out he is target shooting with Ken’s gun. On the day of the present-day block party, Lettie checks Ken’s gun safe and finds the gun is missing. She confronts Jay, who admits to blackmailing both Ken and Dylan as revenge for Ken having raped his mother, Mandy, in high school. Jay then shows Lettie Riley’s missing phone, which contains photos proving Riley’s older lover is Uncle Ken.

At the block party, after her fight with Nick, Alex relapses. Ken gets into a physical altercation with Bug Man. Samir reveals to Alex and Brooke that Mandy was sexually assaulted by Ken in high school, and he believes she moved to Alton Road for revenge. Bug Man reports hearing an argument at Ken’s house, and Alex and Brooke go to investigate. They find Evan holding a gun over Ken’s body. Evan confesses to shooting Ken after discovering his affair with Riley. Lettie and Mandy hide in the hallway. Lettie creates a diversion, and Alex throws a paperweight at Evan. The impact causes Evan’s gun to fire harmlessly, but as he aims again, he suffers a seizure, falls backward, and the gun discharges, fatally shooting him in the head.

Weeks later, Mandy confesses to the other women that she had poisoned Ken’s whisky with her medication, intending to kill him. She had a change of heart but arrived too late. It is implied that Evan drank the poisoned whisky, which triggered his seizure. Mandy also admits she pushed Jerry Bailey from a cruise ship in self-defense. The women agree to keep her secrets and watch as she throws the poisoned bottle into a lake.

One year later, the residents of Alton Road gather for the next block party. The community is healing. Lettie, now attending UMass, wins the egg toss with Nick. Dylan is recovering and pursuing writing. Emily has moved into Willow’s old house. Riley, preparing for a gap year, is surprised by the arrival of a young woman who introduces herself as her half-sister, another of the Wookiee’s daughters. Lettie reflects on the past year’s tragedies and her new interest in studying psychology.