During his freshman year at Barrington University, Tyson Crawford faces his first initiation trial for the Lords: Loyalty. Lincoln, the group’s leader, explains that initiates must prove their willingness to kill. Tasked with fighting a much larger man named Clarence, who is armed with a knife, Tyson is told he is not expected to win. Driven by his father’s mandate to be ruthless, Tyson fights viciously. He feels a sharp pain in his back when he tackles Clarence but pushes through it. He beats Clarence severely with his bare hands, and Lincoln pulls him off, telling him Clarence is dead. Tyson then collapses from his injuries.

In his sophomore year, Tyson’s second trial, Devotion, requires him and a fellow Lord, Miles Hopper, to retrieve a Lord who betrayed the society. They invade a house, killing two guards and capturing the man’s mother and sister. When the sister refuses to reveal her brother’s location, Tyson kills the mother in front of her. Still, the girl refuses to cooperate, claiming she has no information. Miles finds her cell phone and calls her brother on speakerphone, threatening to kill her if he does not return within an hour. He then hangs up and turns off the phone, tossing it into a vase of water where it is ruined. When the girl tries to escape, Tyson sends a second photograph of her from his own phone. Miles begins to suffocate her.

For his junior year trial, Commitment, Tyson orchestrates a blackmail scheme. He hires a woman to seduce a powerful Lord who is running for senator against the society’s preferred candidate. Hidden in a hotel room, Tyson records as the hired woman suddenly withdraws her sexual consent. When the Lord tries to rape her, Tyson intervenes, falsely claiming the woman is underage. He threatens to release the video and call 911, adding that the woman will willingly drink GHB so she tests positive for the drug. He gives the man 24 hours to withdraw from the senatorial race. The hired woman propositions Tyson, but he refuses due to the celibacy rule and leaves, his last initiation task complete.

In his senior year, Tyson undergoes the final ceremony to become a full-fledged Lord. Inside the campus Cathedral, he and the other 21 remaining initiates from his original class of 50 kneel, cuffed and wearing metal collars. Lincoln addresses the assembled masked Lords, declaring the men have proven their loyalty. Branding irons are heated in a fire. After confirming his readiness, a cloth is shoved in Tyson’s mouth, and the hot iron is pressed onto his chest, permanently marking his servitude to the society.

A week after his branding, masked Lords summon Tyson back to the Cathedral. He is escorted in, then knocked to his knees, cuffed, and has his head held over a baptismal pool. A leader informs him that the society has selected a “chosen” for him: Whitney Minson. The Lords imply Tyson may also have Whitney’s sister if he desires. Tyson objects, knowing Whitney’s powerful father will never consent. The masked Lords insist her father’s feelings are irrelevant if Whitney chooses Tyson as her Lord. He is told to make Whitney choose him by any means. If he cannot seduce her, he must rape her. Tyson’s head is plunged into the water until he agrees. 

Three weeks later, having successfully seduced Whitney, Tyson performs the vow ceremony with her. He has sex with her in the baptismal pool in front of the other Lords to publicly claim ownership of her. Tyson has followed orders and set up cameras in his bedroom. The next day, he livestreams Whitney bound and gagged on the bed while he goes to classes.

Three years later, Tyson runs a nightclub called Blackout. He has made a deal with the Lords, devoting his life to managing their underworld in exchange for the right to choose his own wife—rather than following the expected Lord path of a corporate career and arranged marriage. After receiving a call from his best friend Ryat, a senior at Barrington, Tyson prepares for a revenge mission, leaving his club and a man chained in its basement.

The perspective shifts to Laikyn Minson, who is preparing for her wedding. She dreads her arranged marriage to a powerful Lord, Luke Cabot, and despises the submissive life of a Lady. As the ceremony is about to start, the Minsons learn that Luke is missing. Laikyn’s father, Frank, then receives instructions from the Lords that the wedding will proceed with a different groom. Tyson and Ryat enter the room, and Laikyn immediately recognizes the man she hates even more than Luke. 

A flashback to three years earlier shows Laikyn and her parents waiting in the hospital for news of her sister, Whitney. A blood-covered Tyson delivers the news that Whitney is dead. 

Tyson reveals an official document ordering the marriage and threatens to have Ryat kill Laikyn’s brother, Miller, unless Laikyn agrees to marry him instead of Luke. To save her brother, Laikyn agrees.

Tyson rips the pearl necklace from Laikyn’s neck—a gift from her mother—and fastens a diamond-studded velvet choker in its place. He gives Laikyn an ultimatum: walk down the aisle willingly or be dragged to him by a leash attached to the choker. Miller tries and fails to remove the choker. Laikyn’s father insists the wedding is final, explaining that the Lords have chosen her for Tyson and that her refusal would bring shame upon their family. When Laikyn expresses the belief that Tyson killed Whitney, her father slaps her and forbids her from speaking her sister’s name.

A flashback to three years earlier shows Tyson and Ryat watching Whitney’s funeral from a distance. Tyson observes that the Minsons elected to have Whitney cremated, despite her phobia of fire. He also notes that Whitney’s father is not crying, proving that he doesn’t care about his children. Tyson’s father calls, furiously accusing his son of abandoning his future and family’s legacy for a woman. Tyson, unmoved, explains he is doing what is necessary. He sees Miller carry a devastated Laikyn from the gravesite and ends the call, fully committed to his new path of revenge.

In the present, Laikyn feels trapped, knowing that if she flees, her family will suffer. She allows Miller to walk her down the aisle of the Cathedral, which is filled with masked Lords. As she approaches the altar, she sees Tyson waiting for her with a look of “malicious intent.”

At the altar, Tyson stands with Ryat as Laikyn is given to him by her brother, Miller. Tyson lifts her veil, noting her submissive posture and the physical alterations Luke Cabot made her get, such as breast enlargement. He vows to break her down and remake her himself. The wedding proceeds with the Lords’ blood oath: Tyson cuts Laikyn’s neck with a dagger and smears their combined blood on her lips. As Tyson kisses Laikyn forcefully, he whispers a threat about the “hell” that awaits her. The pastor pronounces them married.

Tyson leads Laikyn from the Cathedral into the rain and to a waiting limo. They arrive at the Minson hotel for their wedding night. Laikyn is terrified when Tyson says a doctor, Gavin, is on his way, fearing he will force her into sex work. Tyson clarifies the doctor is there to administer a birth control shot, as he refuses to use condoms or risk getting her pregnant. A different doctor named Jackson arrives and gives her the shot. 

After Tyson dismisses Jackson, he undresses Laikyn. Laikyn recalls thinking Tyson was “hot” when he dated her sister. Tyson says that, as Laikyn is a virgin, he will be gentle for her first time but not in the future, then orders her to lie on the bed.

Tyson rapes Laikyn, ignoring her pain and tears. Laikyn is horrified that, despite her fear and distress, her body responds with arousal, and she experiences her first orgasm. Tyson smears Laikyn’s blood across the bed as evidence that he has taken her virginity. He carries her shaking form to the shower to clean her up.