Audrey Rose

The Templetons notice a stranger, Elliot Hoover, following them in public spaces around Manhattan. The sense of being watched grows until he finally reaches out to them by phone and later makes his approach in person. This early contact marks the beginning of a disturbing fixation that looms over the family.

Elliot is invited to the Templetons' home for dinner, where he claims Ivy is the reincarnation of his late daughter Audrey Rose and says psychics corroborated him. He asserts intimate knowledge of the couple's apartment and that Ivy was born minutes after Audrey died. The couple remains unsettled but curious, weighing belief against skepticism.

During the visit, Elliot speaks Audrey's name and Ivy enters a panicked state, calmed only by his presence. She bangs her hands against the cold window, leaving unexplained burns on her skin. Elliot comforts her, and she calls him 'Daddy' before falling asleep, deepening the family’s confusion.

Bill grows enraged and ejects Elliot from the apartment, even punching him. Janice and Russ, however, are sympathetic to Elliot's plea, clinging to the possibility that Ivy is Audrey's reincarnation. The tension in the home reveals a rift between belief and skepticism.

Another night, Ivy's violent night terror returns and Elliot appears at the door to help calm her. In a subsequent confrontation, Bill attacks Elliot again. Elliot ultimately locks the couple out and disappears with Ivy through a service exit.

After the struggle, Elliot locks the couple out and escapes with Ivy through a service exit. An attendant later reveals that Elliot has rented an apartment in the building, signaling a new stage in his pursuit. Police eventually locate them and charge Elliot with child abduction.

A courtroom trial unfolds while Ivy is sent to a Catholic boarding school in upstate New York to shield her from publicity. Elliot testifies that his actions were necessary to grant peace to Audrey's spirit, and a Hindu holy man testifies to reincarnation beliefs. On the stand, Janice admits she believes Elliot's story.

During a Christmas celebration at the boarding school, Ivy crawls toward a fire pit and sustains burns. The injury underscores the dangers surrounding Ivy's care and the stakes of the trial. The event is reported amid ongoing testimony.

Janice remains with Ivy in upstate New York, staying in a hotel after the proceedings. In the middle of the night, Ivy greets herself in the mirror as Audrey Rose. The moment deepens the belief that Ivy retains memories of Audrey.

To address the question of reincarnation, a past-life regression hypnosis is performed and observed by the jury in a hospital. Ivy revisits the car crash that killed Audrey and reacts violently. She loses consciousness, and Elliot rushes in to try to calm her, but she dies in his arms.

Sometime later, Janice writes a letter to Elliot thanking him for transporting Ivy's cremated remains to India. She expresses hope that Bill will come to accept the belief that Ivy was Audrey reborn and that their lives might still reconcile.

The film ends with an intertitle quoting the Bhagavad-Gita, underscoring the spiritual questions at the heart of the story. The final image leaves Ivy's fate and the plausibility of reincarnation unresolved.