The Attic

Louise Elmore is a depressed, alcoholic spinster who works as a head librarian in Wichita, Kansas. She has not recovered from her fiancé Robert's disappearance the day before their wedding nineteen years ago. She dedicates herself to caring for her abusive, wheelchair-bound father Wendell, who exerts control over her.

After a nervous breakdown, Louise causes a fire in the library and resigns from her job. She begins training her younger incoming replacement, Emily Perkins. Louise has previously attempted suicide by slashing her wrists but survives the attempt.

Louise and Emily quickly become friends, with Emily showing empathy toward Louise's pain and isolation. Louise starts to open up to Emily about her grief and resentment toward her father.

Louise often fantasizes about taking revenge on her father, sometimes imagining murder as a release from his coercive control. The thoughts reveal the depth of her despair and the dangerous edge of her feelings. Yet she remains trapped by her dependency and fear.

One night she goes to the movie theater alone and meets Richard, a sailor who interests her. After the film, she goes back to his hotel with him, and they have sex. The encounter offers Louise a fleeting escape from her loneliness.

The next day, Louise and Emily go shopping, and Emily purchases a pet chimpanzee named Dickie as a gift after noticing Louise's fascination with a chimp in a window. Louise reluctantly brings the animal home, despite Wendell's reluctance to have it around. The chimpanzee's arrival deepens the odd tension at Louise's house.

Emily confides that her boyfriend has moved to California and wants her to join him there, but she is reluctant to leave Kansas. Louise argues that Emily should take the chance and change her life, using her own past as evidence for the need to seize opportunities.

Emily invites Louise to dinner at her mother's house, where the Perkins family is stiff and judgmental. The awkward evening ends with Louise breaking Mrs. Perkins' cherished figurine, feigning an accident to deflect blame. The incident strains the new friendship and foreshadows a volatile departure.

The following evening, library staff throw a small party to bid Louise farewell. On returning home, Louise discovers that Dickie has gone missing; Wendell claims the chimpanzee ran away. Louise grows increasingly distressed at the apparent loss.

The next morning, Louise purchases a plane ticket to Los Angeles for Emily and mails it to her at the library, with a note of encouragement. Emily uses a payphone to call Louise and express her gratitude before leaving for California. Louise's act appears to push Emily toward a new opportunity.

Louise takes her father to the local park, where the wheelchair tips over and he falls out. He reveals that he has been faking his disability to control her, and Louise realizes she has been manipulated. In a fit of rage she pushes him down the hill, killing him when his head smashes against a rock.

Fleeing the scene, Louise searches for her father's hidden cache of money and finds a key to the attic. She enters the locked attic and discovers Dickie’s body along with the long-decomposed remains of Robert, both murdered by Wendell. The revelation exposes the true danger behind her supposed family safety and seals her fate.