Description
After Los Angeles housewife Lori Brandon suffers a stillbirth, her husband Frank obtains a job working in the advertising division of a toy company in the northern California community of Lilith. En route, they witness a violent car accident in which an oncoming vehicle swerves off an embankment, killing the female driver. When their car later runs out of gasoline, Frank walks toward town, and Lori waits at the car. She wanders into a field and finds a gravestone beneath a tree; there, she has a bizarre vision of a young boy's funeral.
Upon arriving in Lilith, Lori and Frank have dinner with his new boss, the eccentric Mr. Cato, who vaguely explains that Frank's job at the company will involve magic, and gives Lori a grimoire as a gift. Priscilla, another of Cato's employees, refers to Cato's dead son, whom he believes is merely "resting". Lori also discovers the house Frank and she have moved into had previously been rented by the woman who died in the car accident.
Lori becomes increasingly unnerved when she observes the power Cato exerts over the small town, owning all of its businesses and maintaining influence over its exclusively young residents, all of whom appear to have interests in the occult. Cato informs Lori of his pursuit of necromancy, the act of bringing the dead back to life, the one power he claims to have been unable to obtain; he also explains to her he believes she holds the key between life and death, and can help him achieve the revival of his dead son.
Lori and Frank are invited to a party, whereupon arriving she discovers it is a formal anointment into the town's coven, but she refuses. The following day, she witnesses an apparition of Cato's son, which lures her into the basement of her home, where she is attacked by a horde of rats. Later, she is confronted by Priscilla and another cult leader, who inform her she is to take the place of Cato's son during a necromancy ceremony. Terrified, Lori attempts to locate Frank when he does not return home from work. She phones Nancy, one of Cato's associates. Nancy is in the midst of having sex with Frank. Nancy lies to Lori, telling her Frank went back to Los Angeles.
Priscilla calls Lori and tells her she wishes to leave Lilith with her, and claims to have confidential information about Frank; however, Lori finds her drowned in a creek in the woods before she is supposed to meet with her. After a series of hallucinations, Lori stumbles upon the necromancy ceremony at Cato's son's grave, and is buried alive in exchange for the return of his son.
She suddenly awakens, and realizes the events she has experienced were only a nightmare. Frank consoles her, but she soon realizes she is experiencing déjà vu, as they discuss their impending drive to Lilith. She realizes her nightmare was, in fact, a premonition of events to come.
