Mary Kee, a woman facing the challenges of a difficult divorce, moves into a new apartment to start fresh. She is also trying to escape from her bitter and abusive ex-husband, which adds a layer of tension and fear to her new life. During her first days in the apartment, Mary discovers an old rotary telephone that immediately captures her attention with its vintage charm. She quickly becomes fond of the antique phone, placing it prominently in her home as a reminder of a bygone era.
Soon after, Mary begins to experience strange and unsettling phone calls from an unknown caller. As these calls continue, her curiosity grows, and she gradually learns that the caller is a woman named Rose. Despite the mystery, an unlikely friendship develops between them, transcending time and space. Rose claims to be calling from the year 1979, and her calls seem eerily real. One day, Rose leaves Mary a painted rose in her pantry, a gesture that makes Mary question whether her new friend is indeed communicating from the past. This revelation sparks her suspicion, and she starts to delve deeper into Rose's story.
George, the handyman who has been at the apartment since 1979, provides Mary with more details. Through him, she learns that Rose endured an abusive marriage herself and that she ultimately took her own life. The situation takes a darker turn when Rose, increasingly disturbed, admits to killing her husband and hiding his body in the pantry by brickwork. Mary discovers the bricks sealed in her pantry, revealing the horrifying truth.
Mary begins a relationship with John, a kind-hearted teacher whose parents operate an Italian restaurant. John is knowledgeable about science and concepts related to time, which makes him particularly interested in helping Mary understand the strange happenings. However, he too becomes wary when her ex-husband, still alive and menacing, tries to manipulate her by appearing in the apartment, prompting John to confront and oust him.
As Rose's threatening calls intensify, Mary feels increasingly haunted and vulnerable within her own home. She decides to cut all contact with Rose, but her peace is short-lived. Rose, angry at being ignored, reveals her awareness of Mary’s past and begins to target others in her life. She even kills George, young George from 1979, and a young mother and her infant, who now reside in his apartment, in her bid to eliminate witnesses. Mary recognizes Rose's manipulations as she sees herself in childhood photos and notices Rose’s haunting presence everywhere.
The situation deteriorates further when Rose kills John as a young boy, and her actions leave a trail of abandoned and buried bodies. Desperate, Mary demolishes the bricks in the pantry, uncovering rotten skeletons, which she quickly disposes of to prevent further horror. Using her knowledge of Rose’s future, Mary tries to manipulate her into a traffic accident, but her plan falls apart. Rose’s obsession and desire for revenge grow stronger, and she vanishes from her institution where she was believed to be a patient.
In the present, Rose mysteriously reappears, threatening to carry out her vengeance—not on Mary herself, but on her childhood self. She lures young Mary into the apartment and attempts to burn her with hot water from the stove, leaving visible burns on an older Mary. Realizing she must make a desperate choice, Mary understands she has to eliminate Rose to stop her.
The climax unfolds when an older Rose breaks into the apartment intending to kill Mary. In a final, heroic act, Mary instructs her younger self over the phone to defend herself. Young Mary stabs Rose with a broken piece of mirror glass, ending her reign of terror. As Rose’s body falls, she vanishes, and Mary is left shaken but safe.
However, the story takes a darker turn when Mary finds herself still living with her ex-husband in the same apartment. He comes home in a hostile mood, and in a chilling act of revenge, Mary kills him and bricks up his body in the pantry, echoing Rose’s earlier deed.
In a deleted ending, the story suggests a continuous cycle of horror again begins, as a young couple moves into the apartment, and the rotary phone starts ringing once more, hinting that the curse might never truly end.
Throughout this eerie tale, the themes of time, revenge, and the lingering shadows of trauma are explored, culminating in a story about confronting the past, making impossible choices, and trying to break free from the cycle of violence that spans generations.
