Renowned visual artist Leonardo Ferri has long struggled to pick up a brush again. His girlfriend Flavia presses him to return to work so she can sell his paintings through the gallery she owns. Seeking an escape from Milan’s bustle, he declares a move to the Italian countryside. Flavia arranges for him to stay in a grand, imposing mansion, but Leonardo feels a powerful pull toward a nearby, sprawling, dilapidated abandoned villa. He breaks into the gated property one afternoon and meets Attilo, its longtime caretaker, who explains that the owners want to sell. Leonardo rents the place and begins the restoration, hiring a young woman, Egle, as a housekeeper.
Upon moving in, Leonardo is disturbed by ominous noises echoing through the estate. The following morning, a shopkeeper informs him that a young countess, Wanda, died on the property during an airstrike in World War II, in which she was shot. Later that day, Leonardo notices a strange man leaving flowers along the exterior wall where Wanda perished. Flavia returns to help Leonardo with the restoration, but soon she is beset by a string of frightening accidents—she falls through a weakened floor, injuring her leg; a bookshelf collapses nearly on top of her. Disturbed, Flavia leaves, confessing that the property unsettles her.
Leonardo begins to probe Wanda’s past among the locals, who tell him she was a nymphomaniac. The local butcher reveals he had a long-running affair with Wanda and that she also dallied with Attilo and other men. He sends Leonardo to visit Wanda’s ailing mother, who now lives in destitution in an apartment in Venice. Disguised as a journalist writing about the aristocracy, Leonardo convinces her of his cover story and manages to extract mementos of Wanda, including a red satin dress. While there, he steals several photographs of Wanda and brings them back to the villa.
Attilo later confesses that he is the one who leaves flowers at Wanda’s death site and that he was with her when she died. He shows Leonardo a hidden room in the house—a small chamber with a one-way mirror, where Wanda and Attilo allegedly frequented intimate moments while Wanda’s mother watched. Attilo reveals that, upon seeing Wanda with a German soldier in that room, he beat the man to death. Wanda helped him bury the body on the property, and the same day, Wanda was killed in the airstrike.
Flavia returns to the villa and finds the restoration progress still stalled. Leonardo tries to make a move on her, but his volatile demeanor frightens her; they eventually reconcile, and he asks her to stay for a dinner party he plans. While Flavia is in the shower, she is jolted by an electric current and becomes convinced that a supernatural presence in the house does not want her there. During the dinner, Leonardo leads a séance to contact Wanda’s spirit. The séance is interrupted when the table shakes violently and an unseen force strangles Flavia.
After the guests depart, Leonardo confronts Flavia upstairs. She realizes he tried to strangle her, and she attempts to flee, but he pursues her through the villa, beating her to death with a shovel and then dismembering her body. He binds and gags their housemaid, Egle, along with her boyfriend, and uses their bodies as part of his paintings. At dawn, Leonardo experiences a cascade of surreal visions: a group of soldiers traverses the property with Attilo, who admits Wanda survived the air attack and that he shot her, making it look like the plane caused her death. Outside, he sees many artists painting in the fields while soldiers stand guard. Officers arrive at the villa, and Leonardo, convinced he has killed Flavia, tells them she is in Milan. As he is escorted out by psychiatrists, he glimpses Flavia waiting among the police and lunges at her.
Some time later, Leonardo is incarcerated in a psychiatric institution. He obsessively paints small, sexually themed works, while an orderly supplies him with pornographic magazines for inspiration. The orderly urges him to paint more, echoing Flavia’s past encouragement. Unbeknownst to Leonardo, Flavia purchases the paintings from the orderly to showcase in her gallery, sealing a grim, artistic link between his troubled visions and her own curatorial ambitions.
