In 1983, Jesse and Carol Fox and their two children, seventeen-year-old Mary and eight-year-old Wesley, move into a new house in Lowell, Arkansas. Mary, a high school drop-out, first encounters the spirit while unpacking material. While going on a bike ride, Wesley runs into two girls who tell him that his house is haunted. Wesley doesn't believe them, but one day while he and his niece Christy investigates the basement, they come across old shoes that move on their own. The house has a history of murders and suicides but none of the residents will tell the Foxes about their home. Carol hears thumping noises during many nights and accuses Mary of causing them, causing their relationship to become a conflict. Mary dreams of a pagan sacrifice ritual in her room featuring five people in robes killing a baby. She and Wesley encounter different entities; Mary sees an old man who was killed, and Wesley sees a lizard-skin demon. During a family meeting, Carol reveals she's heard angry voices in the hall. The family reaches out to their minister who is skeptical of them being haunted, but tells them to believe in Jesus for comfort. Jesse contacts his sister, also named Mary, to help them. She and Mary uncover a pentagram underneath a rug in Mary's room. Aunt Mary senses that the demon is trying to control young Mary. The family pack up and leave the house immediately, though Mary doesn't want to go growing a significant attachment to the house. Two years later, the house is demolished and many years after that, the family does research and learns that the rumors of the murders and rituals that have happened there are in fact true.