First Born

On a New York subway ride, Laura spots a young woman with a baby. The woman disappears suddenly, leaving the baby behind; Laura approaches and discovers the infant is actually a doll wrapped in a blanket, accompanied by the echo of a real baby crying. She takes the doll home with her, setting off a growing sense of unease.

Back home, Laura and her husband Steven celebrate good news: he has made partner at his firm and Laura is pregnant. The mood is hopeful, but Laura senses changes in herself and feels unsettled by the impending motherhood. They share a quiet moment of joy while an unseen fear lingers.

The couple relocates to the countryside seeking peace, but Laura is haunted by persistent baby cries that disrupt her sleep. The cries bleed into mood swings and paranoia, signaling a difficult postpartum period ahead. The tranquil setting does little to calm her growing fear.

Laura places the dog in the basement to keep pests at bay, but the dog dies after ingesting rat poison she had laid out. The tragedy deepens her guilt and anxiety and heightens her sense that something is wrong in the house. Steven is stunned as Laura spirals further into fear.

Labor arrives with complications: Laura’s water breaks and she undergoes an emergency C-section to deliver a baby girl. The birth is emotionally overwhelming, and Laura struggles to connect with the child she has brought into the world. Steven supports her, but a fog of fear hangs over the moment.

In the weeks after, Laura battles insomnia and difficulty pumping breast milk while her mother urges reliance on Steven. She resents her husband’s long hours and doubts her own abilities as a mother, feeling increasingly isolated. The home becomes a foggy battleground between reality and fear.

One day the basement door breaks and Laura is locked inside all day until Steven returns to open it. The episode heightens her sense of confinement and vigilance about the baby’s safety. In the aftermath, Steven hires an au pair, Mrs. Kasperian, to help.

Steven pushes Laura to attend a company dinner, triggering panic over appearances and motherhood. In a hurry she dyes her hair, but no sooner does she prepare than she discovers the baby is missing and later finds it in the car. The hair-dye fallout and a tense, misfiring night push Laura to leave the dinner early.

That night Laura experiences nightmares and is prescribed sleeping pills. Her perception blurs as she senses a threat in the house and argues with Mrs. Kasperian, who is trying to help. A butcher knife is found in the crib, prompting police involvement and intensifying Laura’s fear that someone is intruding on the home.

The doctor diagnoses postpartum psychosis and Steven takes a month off to support Laura as she starts to resume dancing with her mother's help. Laura attempts to regain balance while the cries from the dark corners of the house persist in the background. A sense of fragile progress settles in as she begins to rebuild routine.

In the aftermath Laura researches possible links between her visions and witchcraft, and the line between fantasy and reality remains blurred. She sees her baby in the house and later sleeps, trying to hold onto some sense of normalcy while managing the haunting memories. The house still feels watched as she re-enters dancing and daily life.

Laura repeatedly hears a baby’s cry but sees no child; she notices the baby doll on the dresser and buries it under the lawn. The next morning her family wonders who Jessica is, and Laura cannot explain, leaving the identity of Jessica—likely the buried doll—unresolved. The film ends with unsettling ambiguity about what is real and what remains in Laura’s mind.