In the 1940s, Deputy Waterhouse and Sheriff Proctor drive to a quiet quarry with two bodies stowed in their truck. Waterhouse takes a necklace off one of the corpses and, with cold efficiency, dumps the pair into the dark water. Waterhouse then holds Proctor at gunpoint and demands he get rid of his badge, telling Proctor that he's no longer fit to be sheriff. Proctor throws his badge over the cliff.
In a grim turn of fate, Waterhouse’s actions set the tone for a long, painful history. Years later, the story shifts to the 1970s when Jacqueline Mathers, called Jake Jake Mather and her brother Sean head to the quarry. Sean insists Jake face her fear of jumping into the water below and offers to jump with her. Sean goes, but Jake falters at the last moment, and her brother plunges into the water and does not surface. In a panic, she runs for help, tripping along the way and gashing her forehead, leaving a lasting scar. Deputy Freeman informs Waterhouse, now the sheriff, that his grandson has drowned in the quarry.
Jake struggles with survivor's remorse and sinks into depression. A boy at school named Willie Proctor, the grandson of the old sheriff, develops a crush on her and draws her pictures, much to the disapproval of his grandfather. Some months later, Jake’s parents reveal they’re going to have a baby, which intensifies her turmoil. The next day, Jake encounters three gypsy brothers led by Wyeth Wyeth. Wyeth tells her he has the power to bring her brother back, but someone will have to die in his place. The brothers take her back to their cabin on Proctor's property and make a blood oath with Jake—they’ll bring her brother back if she pushes Willie Proctor over the quarry edge. She agrees, driven by a mixture of fear and desperation.
When she returns home after dark, her parents question where she’s been. Waterhouse takes Jake to the cabin and asks Jake to identify the three brothers, but, remembering her oath, Jake says she’s never seen them before. Jake convinces Willie to follow her to the quarry, and she stands ready to push him over the edge but is overwhelmed by guilt and decides not to. Jake’s mother tries to comfort her with a dinner, where Jake is confronted by Wyeth. Wyeth tells Jake that her grandfather has something of his and he wants it back. Jake later finds her mother crying, having seen a boy who reminded her of Sean. Jake goes to her grandfather’s house and steals the necklace he’s been hiding.
The next day, Wyeth and his brothers confront Jake’s mother at her home. She becomes frightened and blood begins to pour from between her legs. Later, Waterhouse is told by the doctor that his daughter will live but the baby cannot be saved. Filled with remorse, Jake brings the necklace to Wyeth, who tells her she can only bring Sean back if she sacrifices Willie. He places the necklace around her neck. Waterhouse arrests the three gypsy brothers and takes them to jail. A desperate Jake convinces Willie to follow her to the quarry one more time. Meanwhile, haunted by memories, a drunken Proctor begins to douse the gypsy’s cabin with alcohol. Waterhouse goes to the jail to find Deputy Freeman with his throat cut and the brothers escaped. He drives to the cabin in a fury, only to be shot by Proctor. Waterhouse returns fire and the two men lie dying as the brothers head home. Wyeth tells Waterhouse that he’s about to have his revenge.
In a sequence of flashbacks that explain the opening scene, a younger Sheriff Proctor is shown witnessing the gypsy family living on his property and engaging in strange rituals. He threatens the mother with arrest unless she pays. When she says they have no money, he sexually assaults her. Deputy Waterhouse sees Wyeth and his frightened brothers, then—as children—witnesses Proctor raping the mother. Proctor returns to the cabin with food only to be confronted by the husband, who beats him and runs him off. Proctor returns with Waterhouse and kills the father. As Waterhouse protests, the mother shoots at them; Waterhouse returns fire and fatally wounds her. Proctor shoots the father in the head and aims at Wyeth, but Waterhouse stops him. Wyeth kneels over his mother, who whispers something to him before dying. Waterhouse and Proctor then take the two bodies to the quarry.
Back in the 1970s, Wyeth tells Waterhouse that he knows Jake is about to push Willie into the quarry, setting herself up for a lifetime of pain and regret. Waterhouse says he knows the old saying about revenge—"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." He then tosses his lit cigar onto the alcohol-soaked floor, setting the cabin aflame and killing the brothers, Proctor, and himself in the process. As they die, Waterhouse and Wyeth embrace once more, seemingly forgiving each other for the past.
Jake struggles to push Willie. When she realizes that Wyeth only said "someone" had to die, Jake leaps herself and lands in the water. She sees the figure of her brother below her. Sean swims up, pulling the necklace from around her neck before retreating into the depths. Jake hears Willie calling to her from above as she swims back to the surface.
