Jack Parsons grew up in poverty while suffering through childhood at the hands of an abusive, alcoholic father. Jack's brother-like bond with his wealthy neighbor Freddy, and his secret love for Anne the neighborhood beauty, were all that made life tolerable. Now at college, Jack attacks life with a vengeance. Fuelled by narcotics, alcohol, and a "can't lose philosophy", he runs with the popular crowd, pledges the school's most exclusive fraternity, and continues to pine for Anne even though he knows Freddy loves her. The drugs, booze and death defying initiation process cannot stop Jack, but a series of devastating blackouts that force him to question reality stagger Jack like a backhand smack from his old man and threaten to end his perfect life.

In 2006, in Red River, Tennessee, a teenager has frequent nightmares. Her mother reads an old letter from 1817 written by her ancestor, Lucy Bell. After a dispute of lands judged by the church, her husband John Bell is cursed by his opponent Kathe Batts, who has a fame of being a witch. From this moment on, an entity threatens John and her daughter Betsy Bell, attacking the girl during the nights. With the support of Betsy's school teacher Richard Powell, who tries to find rational explanations for the manifestation; her brother John Bell Jr.; and their friend James Johnston, who unsuccessfully tries to exorcize the entity from the house, the family does their best to protect Betsy in the haunted house.