Laura Yvonne Strahovski takes her two young daughters, Kayla “K.K.” Anna Pniowsky and Maddie Abigail Pniowsky, to a remote lake house for their annual family getaway, hoping for a quiet weekend. Owen Julian Bailey, a local resident, warns that the family who previously lived there had a son named John who vanished, a detail that plants a chill early on. At a nearby gas station, Shawn Justin Bruening buys the girls a music box, a small, almost innocent gift that will loom large as the night unfolds.
While the kids explore outside, Kayla and Maddie follow a long red string that leads them to a tea party setup deep in the forest, where two cupcakes wait on a table. Maddie eagerly eats hers, while Kayla saves hers with a plan to give it to Shawn later. That night, Maddie falls ill and vomits up a tiny ribbon bearing the word “hello.” Kayla tells Laura about the cupcakes, and Laura discovers another ribbon hidden inside the cupcake Kayla saved, this time with the word “goodbye.” A downed landline prevents 911 from reaching, and unsettling noises upstairs prompt Laura to search for a signal and a cellphone, only to find a strange doll in the backseat of the car.
A frightening sequence escalates quickly: Laura leaves the house with the girls, but a car crash follows when two wheels fall off. Inside, Laura discovers a family photo with every face scratched out except hers, and a darkly clothed, masked figure stands outside—John Ryan McDonald. Shawn arrives, only to be lured into the forest by a red string and confronted by the same eerie display of mannequins arranged like a grim family around the tea party. John kills Shawn with an axe, and the tension intensifies as the house ring fills with more terrifying sounds.
More horrors surface as John uses a recording of Shawn’s voice to lure Laura outside. Suddenly, Shawn’s body drops from the roof, eyes gouged, and the lights flicker out. Laura and the children rush outside to find dolls that look like them—dolls in the woods, a woman hanging, and child dolls on the swings. A female doll is hurled into the house through a window, prompting Laura to hide the girls in a closet upstairs while she recovers Shawn’s car keys from his body. Owen returns to investigate the commotion and, armed with a light, walks around outside; he sees Laura inside the house, but John appears and kills him with an axe.
Downstairs, Laura discovers a doll in the kitchen and a handmade, altered storybook that depicts John’s plan to kill them. As they prepare to leave again, John unexpectedly breaks through the front door, captures Laura, and Kayla and Maddie are drawn outside by a children’s song, thinking it’s Shawn speaking. They head toward Shawn’s car, finding presents in the back seat and their mother bound in the trunk. John swings his axe into Laura’s side and drives toward the girls, forcing a chase back to the house.
John reveals himself to Kayla and Maddie, explaining that he grew up in the house and has stalked Laura’s family during each yearly visit. He speaks cryptically about the storybook’s significance and claims control over the girls’ fates, before knocking them unconscious. By morning, Shawn’s eyes and arms have been placed on the mannequins, and Laura survives the assault as John removes the axe from her side. He carries the unconscious sisters to his forest “effigy” collection and begins to convert the girls into new parts for his creations, a macabre ritual that tests every ounce of Laura’s resolve.
A music box plays again, drawing John’s attention, and Laura manages to distract him long enough to strike back with his own axe. The struggle ends with John collapsing, and Laura, Kayla, and Maddie reunite with their mother in Shawn’s car. They drive away, though the engine stalls at a critical moment; Laura restarts it and, glancing back, sees that John’s body has disappeared, leaving the fate of their would-be tormentor ambiguous but the family clearly shaken yet alive.
