Twenty-two-year-old Macy Mullins is riding a bus toward Brooksview Heights for a job interview. A college graduate with a graphic-design degree and significant debt, she has struggled to find employment and turned to Craigslist in desperation.

At a desolate stop, a gaunt, anxious man boards without paying and is physically removed by the driver. He begs Macy for money, but she can’t help. Macy notices that another passenger, a woman in a blue rain jacket, is staring at her in the window’s reflection. When Macy looks directly, the woman turns away. Macy dozes off and is awakened at the final stop, Windfall Transit Center. The woman in blue is gone. The driver warns Macy against traveling alone after dark. She checks her phone and sees that Grace Carnswel’s address is at the farthest end of Brooksview Heights.

Macy hikes through the upscale neighborhood, observing the mansions and noting that many of them appear unoccupied. A brown rabbit nibbles petunias in a flower bed. As she climbs higher, the streetlamps disappear, and rain begins. She reaches a dead end marked by a boulder displaying the address 5637.

The Carnswel property is a modest two-story rancher nestled into a rock face. It’s understated compared to the surrounding estates. A young woman storms out, passes Macy with a sarcastic greeting, and drives off. Grace calls to Macy from the doorway.

Macy meets Grace inside the foyer, where she notices a large mud-covered poncho on a coatrack. Grace compliments Macy’s jacket, prompting Macy to reveal that it belonged to her father. Macy then sees a photograph of a stormy ocean inlet, which Grace explains is a photograph her husband took of the nearby Windfall Inlet. Macy also sees a VHS tape labeled with a warning not to watch it without permission of the “Ward.”

Grace offers a saying about troublesome people being people in trouble. She asks Macy about her résumé and then reveals that her husband died three months ago. Confused, Macy learns that the job is actually house-sitting: Grace needs someone to maintain David’s specific upkeep routines while she visits her granddaughter in Florida. She admits to deceptive advertising but refuses to explain the routines or their purpose, describing David’s reasoning as potentially disturbing. Grace insists that the routines are nonsense but says she must honor the promise she made to David when he was dying. When Macy attempts to leave, Grace stops her and asks if she will at least hear the pay offer.

Macy accepts the position after Grace offers $6,000 for two days, with a potential $3,000 bonus. Grace pays for an Uber to take Macy home and gives her the VHS tape containing David’s instructions, admitting that she hasn’t watched it herself. She isn’t ready to see her husband again.

In the Uber, Macy sees that a $3,000 wire transfer from Grace has already arrived in her account. She uses the money to pay overdue rent and energy bills. She considers buying headphones but prioritizes her 17-year-old sister Jemma Mullins’s asthma-inhaler prescription. By the time she finishes allocating funds, half the money is gone. She texts Jemma about her arrival time.

Macy reflects on her hometown, Salem, Oregon, and how her childhood pride in it has faded. The Uber passes familiar landmarks now closed or in decline, including a graffiti-covered building called the Hawthorne Hotel. AI-generated billboard ads promise the development of new condominiums in the near future. Macy anticipates the imminent gentrification of her neighborhood.

The driver drops Macy off at her apartment building, a dilapidated former motel. Macy walks past the defunct swimming pool, recalls the eviction notice she recently received, and enters her apartment.

Macy enters her small studio to find Jemma absent and the shower curtain closed. Suspecting that Jemma is hiding to play a prank on her, Macy checks the shower and finds it empty. She then checks the storage closet. Jemma leaps from behind the bathroom door, shouting her signature attack phrase, but the door rebounds off a shoe rack and hits her in the nose.

Jemma sits on the couch with a nosebleed. She presents Macy with expensive wireless headphones as a gift, but Macy quickly realizes that Jemma stole them. When confronted, Jemma justifies the theft by claiming that the store steals wages. Macy warns that Jemma could face serious consequences now that she’s almost 18. Jemma makes a reluctant promise to stop stealing. Macy keeps the headphones anyway.

Jemma asks about the interview. Macy explains that the job is house-sitting, not caretaking. When Jemma sees the VHS tape that Macy has brought home, she asks what it is.

Macy and Jemma search their storage closet for their father’s old VCR, turning up youth soccer trophies, mementos from his lawn-care business, and Macy’s childhood stuffed rabbit, which she called “Doc.” Seeing these items triggers memories for Macy; Jemma dismisses them as just “stuff.” Macy retrieves the VCR and warns Jemma that, per Grace’s instructions, she’s supposed to watch the tape alone, as more people knowing the information could make things worse. Jemma insists on watching anyway. Macy presses play.

The tape begins with David Carnswel introducing himself and explaining that the video details precautions for suppressing an entity on the property. He outlines what he calls the “Rites.” First, keep the house tidy. Second, keep all main- and second-floor lights off between three and four o’clock in the morning. She can use the bathroom during this hour, but her use must not exceed three minutes. Third, lock all exterior doors if rabbits are spotted near the house; if one gets inside, she must remove it within 10 minutes, or it will begin scratching the floor. Should Macy fail to turn the lights off or remove the rabbits within the allotted time, she should open one of two labeled envelopes, which will provide her with a contingency plan. The footage glitches twice to show an empty concrete room; the second time, it contains a television and VCR.

The video resumes with David looking exhausted. He continues giving instructions. Anyone with pale blue eyes arriving between six in the evening and six in the morning is a Visitor; Macy must hide from them and prevent them from entering the house. Once the Visitor leaves, a rotary phone will ring with instructions that Macy must strictly follow, even if they contradict David’s other directions. He presents a third contingency envelope, intended to cover any emergencies. Macy should only consult it when she feels she has run out of choices for protecting the house.

David warns that the entity will weaponize the caretaker’s memories, that the position cannot be abandoned until a replacement is found, and that the caretaker may only leave during daylight for no more than eight hours. Consistent failure of the Rites will have catastrophic consequences, which is signified by the rise of a blood-red sun. A knocking noise is heard off-screen, and David grabs the camera and runs. The video ends.

Jemma insists that the video is a joke and demands that Macy refuse the job. Macy reveals that she already received and spent half of the first $3,000. Jemma points out the suspicious nature of a Craigslist offer paying up to $9,000 with no contract and questions why wealthy people would hire someone unqualified for the role. Macy cites their desperate financial situation to defend her decision. When Jemma suggests that the threat David talked about in the video could be real, Macy scoffs at the idea of a powerful entity being stopped by simple routines.

Jemma reminds Macy that their father’s birthday falls on the Sunday she will be looking after the Carnswel house, and she questions whether she should be alone. Jemma mentions a long-delayed life insurance payout that resulted from their father’s death, but Macy dismisses it as unreliable. Defeated, Jemma calls Macy an “idiot” for taking the job.

Unable to sleep near three in the morning, Macy goes to the patio to smoke a cigarette from her hidden stash. She smokes the same brand of cigarettes her father used. She reflects on Jemma’s disapproval of smoking; their aunt died from smoking-related illness. The cigarettes and their scent remind her of her father.

Brooding, she admits to herself that Jemma is right about the job being suspicious. After weighing their financial struggles, from bills and debt to eviction threats, she makes her final decision. She returns inside and mutters confirmation of her choice: She is indeed an “idiot,” but she’s taking the job.