In early 2001, Norman and Jennifer Rice purchase a 19th century Victorian house in Garden Grove, Iowa originally owned by a banker and his wife. Jennifer grows a big attachment to it hires a team of contractors to work on the house while Norman is away at work. During the job, one of the worker is pushed off a ladder and injured. After he flees the house, Jennifer and her eight year old son Andrew overhear the other two workers talking about an incident that happened in the house where a female servant, pregnant by the banker, had fallen down the stairs after an argument with the banker who then buried her in the basement. Jennifer thinks nothing of it, but Andrew goes to investigate and is grabbed by an entity. Over the next several months, many contractors come and go refusing to work on the house anymore due to the rumored history. Jennifer is left to complete renovations by herself. She holds an open house and meets a old woman who is the great-niece of the banker who built the house. She gives Jennifer a scrapbook of pictures of the banker and his wife and is told to dismiss the rumors about the place. Jennifer learns the couple tried to have children of their own but couldn't. Norman encounters the entity one day while investigating the basement. The presence causes him to become angrier and Jennifer is relieved when he leaves on a business trip for several weeks. It wouldn't be for another two years before the family finally sells and leaves the house.