Guy Maddin, portrayed by Erik Steffen Maahs as an adult and Sullivan Brown as a child, returns to the eerie, abandoned island of Black Notch, which houses the family lighthouse that once served as an orphanage managed by his parents. His mission is simple yet profound: to give the lighthouse a fresh coat of paint. The narrative unfolds across twelve captivating chapters, each delving into a vivid flashback triggered by Guy’s efforts to restore his ancestral home.
In one particularly striking memory, twelve-year-old Guy finds himself attending a clandestine gathering of orphans led by the ominous Savage Tom, who harbors unsettling beliefs in pagan customs. During the meeting, Tom menacingly declares that he will extract the heart of Guy's dear friend, Neddie. Just then, the tension shatters when Guy’s overbearing mother intervenes using her “aerophone”— a unique device that amplifies her voice across the island, allowing her to maintain an iron grip over her children, whom she surveils using a telescope fitted with the lighthouse’s revolving light. Within the confines of the orphanage-lighthouse, she takes pleasure in stifling the orphans' desires, particularly the burgeoning sexual urges of a girl known as Sis.
Guy's mother, who recounts her tragic backstory of being an orphan herself, explains her cruel lineage: her bald grandmother once scalped her sister for hair, and driven by jealousy, her sister gifted her with a twisted birth, as Guy's mother was literally cut out of her own mother’s womb. Meanwhile, Guy’s father remains a distant figure, preoccupied with his underground laboratory.
Amidst the tumult, Guy encounters Wendy Hale, a spirited young detective who is investigating the peculiar mystery surrounding the former orphans—the existence of eerie holes drilled into the backs of their heads. As they grow closer, Guy becomes enamored with Wendy, while she develops feelings for Sis and decides to masquerade as her twin brother, Chance, to pursue her affections. This leads to complications as Guy, infatuated with the disguised Wendy/Chance, assists in her investigation, unearthing the dark secret that his father has been using a sharp signet ring to penetrate the skulls of orphans, extracting nectar from their brains to send to the mainland while maintaining his wife’s youth.
As tensions escalate, Mother becomes relentless, sending Sis to collect more nectar, resulting in a tragic turn when Sis acts in self-defense and kills Father in a fit of rage. With Father buried at sea, the orphans resort to jumping on the coffin to ensure it sinks into the watery grave. In her desperation, Mother attempts to end her life dramatically, calling for the orphans to witness her despair. Just as Sis unravels the truth about Chance's true identity, she makes plans to marry Wendy.
Mother, furious at the thought of this union, exhumes her husband’s corpse and miraculously brings him back to life using her own ‘nectar-infused’ heart. Now a zombie, Father resumes his former menacing role, while Mother’s insatiable hunger grows more intense. Guy stumbles upon a horrific scene—Mother devouring the skull of Neddie in the woods. In a bid to protect the remaining orphans, Sis seizes control, ousting Savage Tom, Mother, and Father from the island in a desperate rowboat escape.
Eventually, Guy finds himself as the last child on the island, exchanging heartfelt declarations with his mother across the water before he too is sent into foster care. In a haunting present, now grown, Guy finishes his lighthouse restoration and meets Wendy's ghost, who reveals Sis’s reign of terror in his absence. As Sis spirals into madness after Wendy/Chance abandons her, Guy struggles with his fractured family ties amidst the tragic past.
However, when Father is tragically murdered by former orphans seeking revenge for their torment, life on the island shifts yet again. Mother, now blind, arrives back on Black Notch with the undead Father, determined to reclaim her dominion while focusing solely on Guy. The tension builds until Mother succumbs to a fatal illness, and Guy prepares to collect her final breath in a glass bottle. Just as he readies himself, the ghost of Wendy/Chance diverts his attention, leading to a furious final moment with his mother before her passing.
Ultimately, Guy remains alone, grappling with the haunting memories of his past and contemplating his uncertain future, torn between life and despair on the desolate island he once called home.
