In a distant fifteenth-century Europe, a deformed, mystical figure known as Rumpelstiltskin triggers a brutal chase when he kidnaps a baby that a village woman promised him in exchange for turning straw into gold. After numerous failed assaults by a mob, a Gypsy Woman channels ancient magic and transforms him into a small stone effigy meant to imprison him for a thousand years. He is released only if a genuine, heartfelt wish about a child is uttered, binding his fate to the family involved.
Jump to present-day Los Angeles, where Russell Stewart, a police officer, is gunned down in the line of duty during a botched carjacking, leaving his pregnant wife Shelly a widow. Soon afterward, Shelly, her newborn son, and her best friend Hildy visit Matilda's Place, an antique witch’s shop that now contains the very stone. Intrigued by its supposed ability to grant wishes, Shelly disregards Matilda’s cautious counsel and purchases the mysterious relic.
Back at home, Shelly makes a wish with raw emotion: she longs for a version of Russell to meet their baby, Johnny. The wish appears to come true in a haunting vision—Shelly and Russell share a night together—yet the dream collapses when Russell’s image is replaced by the greedy [Rumpelstiltskin], who immediately demands Johnny as payment. Shelly and Johnny narrowly escape, only to return later with frightened authorities. They spend a tense night with [Hildy], who hears the story and helps fill in the fairy-tale echoes that seem to mirror Shelly’s nightmare.
Night turns into a nightmare again when Rumpelstiltskin materializes in their room, and once more takes Johnny. In the wake of the death of a passing motorcycle rider, Rumpelstiltskin absorbs the stolen ride and continues his relentless pursuit, moving to a tanker truck and pushing toward the rural outskirts near Bakersfield. Shelly and the others—now aided by the stubborn but principled Max Bergman—are forced into a dangerous roadside chase. Max, a chauvinistic TV show host who initially distrusts Shelly’s story, finally becomes an uneasy ally as danger escalates and a dramatic dune-buggy ruse sends Rumpelstiltskin careening off a hillside toward a tree, igniting the tanker in a blazing explosion.
When the dust settles, a mortally wounded sheriff’s department discovers that Rumpelstiltskin has survived, and Shelly, Max, and Johnny flee again in a car that now carries Matilda, who has followed the trail of clues. Matilda explains the grim truth: Rumpelstiltskin has no soul of his own and seeks Johnny’s soul, which requires a graveyard rite performed before sunrise. To counter him, Matilda prescribes a ritual of fire, chaff (straw), and an ancient chant spoken three times—but the chant hinges on naming the creature itself. Through a vision-spell, Shelly and Max learn how to stop him.
A plan unfolds: they locate a nearby barn filled with straw, and a front-loader tractor becomes their weapon. As night deepens, Max drives the tractor up to the graveyard, burning straw and pursuing the figure toward a powerline. The tractor charges through the graveyard, capturing Rumpelstiltskin in its fiery loader, and then crashes into a power source, triggering a spectacular electrical explosion. Shelly confronts the exhausted, weakened Rumpelstiltskin and calls his name three times—an act that seals his fate and reverts him to the stone effigy, effectively imprisoning him once more for a thousand years. Johnny emerges from the danger unscathed, and the trio departs, with Max appearing to have left the ‘asshole business’ behind and Shelly quietly opening the door to a possible new beginning with him.
Three years pass, and the quiet is shattered when a curious young girl discovers the stone and brings it to her mother—who cradles an infant in her arms—hinting that the cycle might begin anew with a fresh family drawn into the same dark bargain.
