The People Next Door

The film opens with Garrett and Donna James frantically searching the Wyoming mountains for their young daughter Megan after a camping trip goes missing. The scene establishes the fear and desperation that drives the couple and foreshadows the dangerous dynamic to come.

Anna Morse relocates to Albuquerque with her three daughters to escape an abusive marriage and start anew. She soon meets her neighbors Garrett and Donna, who take a keen and unsettling interest in her children.

During a neighborhood picnic, Garrett offers the kids a ride on a miniature train. While Anna buys tickets, Billie and Sally go with him back to the house to retrieve a forgotten dessert, leaving Laura at the park. When Anna returns, she discovers her two daughters are missing and begins to search frantically.

Anna takes Laura to the police station but is frustrated by being treated as a suspect. Lt. Dekker begins digging into Garrett and Donna's past, uncovering a history of trouble that points toward a kidnapping.

Anna agrees to a polygraph test and passes, strengthening the case against the neighbors. Dekker suggests that the investigation could involve the FBI if the case crosses state lines.

Ellen advises Anna to place Laura with her mother temporarily to stabilize the search and Anna's life. Anna reluctantly agrees to relinquish Laura to Ellen until the situation is resolved.

In a Michigan cabin, Garrett tells Billie that Anna struck Laura and caused a fall that killed her, using the lie to manipulate the girl. He also warns that if the girls return to New Mexico they will be placed in foster care while he and Donna take care of them.

Anna lands a waitress job but is evicted after two months for unpaid rent and ends up sleeping on a park bench while continuing the search for her daughters.

Garrett and Donna relocate with Billie and Sally to Tennessee, where the girls are given new names after a hair cut and makeover, becoming Rachel and Diane.

Dekker and Anna visit a trailer park and speak with a former neighbor who recalls Garrett's verbal and physical abuse toward his wife and daughter, deepening Anna's fear for her own children.

Donna spots Billie and Sally on a missing poster during a shopping trip and flashes back to Megan, realizing Garrett may have killed Megan and fearing for Anna's daughters.

Anna has a late night inspiration after a vintage rockabilly performance and shares a plan with Dekker to circulate Garrett's poster across clubs that focus on oldies, hoping to locate them by the music trail.

A teacher at Billie and Sally's Pueblo, Colorado school recognizes them on a poster, but by the time Anna reaches, the couple has moved to Denver. Donna privately contacts Anna offering to return the girls but asks that no police be involved.

Garrett is recognized from a WANTED poster at a club, and the clerk is shot after failing to intervene. Garrett then goes to a sporting goods store to buy sleeping bags, rope, and a hunting knife, signaling a dangerous escalation.

Donna arranges to meet Anna at a coffee shop to retrieve the girls, but Garrett returns home first and a tense confrontation ensues. Dekker arrives and arrests Garrett at gunpoint, revealing that Laura is safe. Billie reunites with Anna and, in a hopeful moment, says she wants to be Billie again.