The Vacancy in Room 10

Cass arrives at The Sycamores, a run-down former motel converted into apartments on a desolate highway outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, after her long-term partner, Reid Chapman, a prominent real estate broker, cheated on her with a young waitress named Kimmy and evicted her from their shared home. Because they were never married and nothing was in her name, Cass has no legal protections, no savings, and no job. She takes a position as the building's caretaker in exchange for free rent, moving into the smallest unit, Room 10.

The Sycamores houses an eccentric community on the margins: the "pool girls," Crystal, Jackie, and Rosa, who play cards by the pool daily; Mary Hidleman, a lonely elderly tenant; Babs, a bald, gin-drinking eccentric; and Barry, a socially awkward sword collector. Desperate for money, Cass begins luring cheating married men into compromising situations, photographing them, and blackmailing them for cash.

Seven months later, Anna Hartley, a journalist between jobs, receives a devastating phone call from her husband, Henry, a local artist and former high school art teacher who has grown increasingly depressed since losing his position. He tells Anna he has "ruined everything" and done "something unforgivable," saying he killed someone. Anna hears a loud bang, and the line goes dead. Henry's body is found on a bank of the Rio Grande, and authorities rule his death a suicide.

Two weeks later, Anna moves into Henry's studio at The Sycamores to sort through his belongings. Henry rented the unit at the suggestion of Callum Brooks, a high school science teacher at the complex whose wife, Lily, had bone cancer and has since passed away. Upon entering, Anna finds a note reading "GET OUT."

Anna investigates Henry's life at the complex. Callum reveals that Henry was deeply embedded in the community, organizing care for Lily, giving painting lessons, and socializing, an entire social world Anna knew nothing about. He also mentions a rumor about Henry and a senior student named Mira Medford. When Anna's air conditioner breaks, Cass refuses to fix it but privately asks Callum to handle the repair for a rent reduction. While removing the unit, Anna discovers a hidden key tagged "storage" in Henry's handwriting. A package of live maggots left at her door confirms the threats are escalating.

Cass witnesses Rosa's husband, Eddie Bacco, violently assaulting Rosa. After Rosa refuses help, Cass records Eddie striking Rosa in the laundry room. Meanwhile, Detective Harrison reveals to Anna that Henry's death was not suicide: His Fitbit data shows his heart stopped hours after the call, the head wound was inconsistent with a fall, and there was no water in his lungs. When detectives mention Anna's right to a lawyer, she realizes she is a suspect.

Cass confronts Eddie with the video, demanding he leave Rosa alone. He attacks her, and in desperation she stabs him in the neck with scissors. Eddie bleeds to death. Callum arrives, walks in on the scene, and discovers that Eddie's bag contains drugs, cash, and multiple fake IDs. Every identity belongs to a murdered person; his real name is Victor Becerra, an infamous cartel figure. Terrified of retaliation, Cass and Callum decide to hide the body.

Anna uses the hidden key to find Henry's storage unit in the basement, but someone locks her inside. Barry eventually frees her. With her friend Monica's help, Anna discovers Henry's journal, which describes his passionate love for another woman over the course of a year.

Cass and Callum maintain normalcy by alternating at the Friday barbecue while concealing Eddie's death. That night, Cass attends a charity ball with the pool girls, where she encounters old friends who treat her coldly and learns Reid is engaged to Kimmy, who is pregnant. After a confrontation, Cass pushes Kimmy into a cake and is arrested for assault, leaving Callum to move Eddie's body. They later bury Eddie in the desert.

Rosa and the pool girls ask Anna to post Cass's five-hundred-dollar bail. During the drive back, Anna probes Cass about Henry and later tracks down Mira Medford's friend, who reveals Mira's crush was one-sided. The friend also saw Henry kissing a dark-haired woman at The Sycamores, leading Anna to suspect Rosa. Phone records showing calls between Henry and Monica before his death deepen her confusion.

Cass receives an anonymous note warning that the burial site is slated for construction. She exhumes Eddie's body and moves it to an abandoned well in remote southern Colorado, keeping ten thousand dollars of his cash.

Anna discovers that Henry's duck-shaped key chain is a USB thumb drive containing photographs of paintings, all depicting Lily Brooks. The affair was with Callum's wife. In Callum's apartment, Anna finds Henry's paintings of Lily hidden under sheets and, in the closet, nude portraits with every face violently slashed through the canvas. She escapes through a window when Callum returns, dropping her phone outside.

Rosa reveals herself as Cass's secret protector. She overheard Cass and Callum the night Eddie died and has been tracking Cass's movements since. Cass then shows Anna a video she found months earlier on Henry's phone when he passed out drunk. In it, Henry confesses his affair with Lily and accuses Callum of coercing him into providing oxycodone, a powerful prescription painkiller, which Callum used to overdose Lily deliberately to end the burden of her care and collect life insurance money. Cass had confronted Callum at the time, but he dismissed the accusations as the ravings of a drunk man. After Henry's death was ruled a suicide, Cass accepted this explanation, until Anna's investigation revealed it was murder.

Cass brings Detective Harrison two pieces of evidence: Henry's video and security footage she secretly recorded showing Callum moving Eddie's body, timestamped during her arrest and providing her an alibi. Meanwhile, Callum discovers the video has been shared, finds Anna outside his window, overpowers her, and drives her to Diablo Canyon, a remote cliff near the Rio Grande, to stage her death as a suicide, the same method he used on Henry.

Rosa, who placed a GPS tracker on Callum's car, leads Cass to the canyon. Callum has Anna drugged and bound near the cliff's edge. He reveals he left the threatening notes and locked Anna in the storage unit. When Callum drags Cass toward the edge with a knife, Rosa shoots him in the thigh with an untraceable revolver from Eddie's truck. Wounded, Callum drives away. The women track him to the nearby Desert Inn and call in an anonymous tip. Police arrest him, and he is held without bail.

Three months later, Anna has moved to Ibiza, fulfilling a dream she and Henry shared. She learns Monica's calls with Henry were about planning a surprise birthday dinner, an innocent explanation. She writes the full story, omitting the secrets she must protect, and dedicates it to Henry. Reid invites Cass to dinner, hoping to win her back, but sitting in their old kitchen, Cass realizes nothing there was ever hers and that Reid's world slowly dismantled her identity. At The Sycamores, she earned everything through her own work, and the residents became her family. She drives back, joins the Friday barbecue, and sits with Frank, Mary's ten-year-old grandson, whom Cass has taken under her wing, teaching him to make pesto from her replanted herb garden. She is home.