The Barrett family, consisting of mother Lacy, father Daniel, their eldest son Jesse, and youngest son Sammy, live a seemingly ordinary life on a quiet suburban street in an unspecified American city. With Daniel currently out of work, the responsibility of sustaining the family rests heavily on Lacy, who diligently works as a real estate agent. Despite their challenges, the two boys share a strong bond, often communicating playfully via walkie-talkie from their respective bedrooms.
However, their mundane existence takes a bizarre turn with a series of unsettling events. Strange happenings unfold in their home—kitchen items are found rearranged in inexplicable ways, and one night, the house alarm goes off, indicating that all entry points were breached simultaneously. As Sammy suffers a mysterious episode at the park, Lacy is left shocked when hundreds of birds suddenly crash against their house.
One fateful night, Lacy awakens to a noise coming from Sammy's room. Investigating, she sees a shadowy figure looming over her son’s bed. When she illuminates the room, she finds it empty, and later, a disoriented Sammy is found wandering away from the house, unable to recall how he left. Distressingly, Lacy, Daniel, and Jesse each endure episodes of catatonia, emerging without any memory of their experiences. A visit to a pool party reveals strange marks on Sammy's body, while Jesse suffers a foreboding episode in the woods, leading to a hospital visit where geometric shapes are noticed on his skin. The unsettling discoveries prompt doctors to contact Child Protective Services.
Faced with increasing fear, Lacy embarks on an online search for explanations and stumbles across articles linking their unusual experiences to UFOs and reports of alien abduction. In a bid to protect his family, Daniel installs security cameras throughout the house. Upon reviewing the footage, they are horrified to see three dark figures hovering over them while they innocently slept at night. Realizing they may be dealing with an extraterrestrial presence, Lacy and Daniel enlist the help of a specialist named Edwin Pollard, who identifies the beings as "the Greys."
Pollard reveals that countless others have experienced similar phenomena, most of which culminate in abductions of children. He warns the couple that the entity initially interested in a child is most likely the one that will be abducted. This revelation leads Daniel to procure a shotgun for protection, and Lacy adopts a fierce guard dog to enhance their family's defenses. To prepare for any potential threats, the family spends the Fourth of July reinforcing their home by boarding up windows and securing doors as they gather for dinner, reminiscing about happier times while watching a program of fireworks on TV.
Suddenly, the television screen fills with static, and ominous flickering lights take over the house, causing the dog to bark uncontrollably at a boarded-up window. Acting quickly, Daniel instructs Lacy and the boys to retreat to Jesse's room while he readies himself with the firearm. A blinding light appears outside the window, and as the power goes out, Lacy stands guard at the door with a kitchen knife, unaware of a shadowy figure lurking behind her, ultimately trapping her in the bedroom.
In a desperate moment, Daniel manages to get Jesse and Sammy into their parents’ room, where they barricade themselves on the bed in fear. As the television resumes flickering, the unexplained entities materialize in the room. Jesse loses consciousness and enters a disturbing vision where he perceives his father committing suicide alongside his mother’s bloodied figure. Awakening in the upstairs hallway, he encounters the Greys and vanishes in an intense flash of light, leaving the rest of the family powerless to intervene.
Three months later, Lacy and Daniel have transitioned to living in an apartment and have become suspects in Jesse's case of disappearance. In a melancholic gesture, Pollard cuts out an article about Jesse's vanishing and adds it to a wall filled with images of missing children. While sifting through old belongings, Lacy stumbles upon childhood drawings created by Jesse, revealing his unsettling visions of the Greys surrounding him. It hits her like a lightning bolt—that it was actually Jesse, not Sammy, who first captured the aliens’ attention, indicating he was the one chosen for abduction. Suddenly, a burst of static erupts from a nearby walkie-talkie, and Lacy and Daniel hear Jesse’s faint voice calling out for Sammy, reigniting the haunting tension of their family saga.
