Paul and Helen Fraser arrive to stay at an isolated lakeside cabin, only for Paul to be brutally murdered by a figure with an axe. Helen discovers the body and the car keys missing, and flees into the woods. She stumbles on the home of Odis Pickett, who insists he will he phone the sheriff. Once inside the Pickett farmhouse, Odis introduces her to his pregnant wife, Emmy; daughter, Sarah; and developmentally disabled son, Bo. An exhausted Helen considers leaving the house, but instead accepts the Picketts' offer to spend the night and avoid endangering herself. In the nearby woods, a figure watches the Pickett farmhouse. Helen looks on as Odis gets drunk on
moonshine and Bo skins and boils a
possum. Bo quietly accuses Sarah of
prostituting herself for money, after which Sarah places a hex on him. In an adjacent room, Emmy reveals to Helen that she only married Odis because her father owed him money, and indicates that Odis is abusive toward her. Helen divulges that she had a husband prior to Paul, who presumably died in the
Vietnam War. Later, Odis gropes Helen while she is sleeping. She awakens, and her screams alert Emmy and Sarah. Sarah accuses Odis of
molesting her since she was twelve years old, and tells him she was castrate him if he touches Helen again. Emmy urges Bo to go to the neighbors' home to call the sheriff. While walking through the woods, an assailant kills Bo by impaling him on a spiked fence. Meanwhile, Odis continues to get progressively intoxicated. Helen tries to quietly leave, only to find Bo's corpse on the front porch. A distraught Odis plans to bury Bo in the backyard, while Sarah accuses Helen of being a witch who has brought them misfortune. An angry Odis attempts to rape Helen, but Emmy comes to her defense, though unsuccessfully, as Odis finally assaults Helen. The next morning, Helen awakens and unsuccessfully attempts to leave. Odis sends Sarah to the neighbors' house to call a preacher for Bo's burial. Sarah hears someone following behind her on a path, and, hoping to spare herself, calls out that she will help the assailant locate Helen. The figure approaches Sarah, only to strangle her with barbed wire. When Sarah fails to return, Emmy send Odis to find her. After he leaves, Emmy gives Helen directions to the lake, hoping to help her escape. Odis finds Sarah in the woods, clinging to life, and attempts to load his shotgun before a figure grabs him from behind and murders him. The figure then approaches the Pickett house, knocks, and enters. The killer is revealed to be Jim, Helen's first husband, who explains to Helen that he was in a
prisoner of war camp in Vietnam and mistakenly presumed dead. Still claiming Helen as his wife, Jim attempts to stab her to death, only for the mortally wounded Sarah to enter the front door and shoot him dead with Odis's shotgun. Emmy consoles a distraught Helen on the house's front porch, telling her the two still have one another at least. ==Cast==