प्लॉट

When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.

Early one morning at 2:17 A.M. in Maybrook, Pennsylvania, 17 children from the same class simultaneously leave their homes and run off into the night. Their teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) arrives to her classroom hours later, only to find one student there: a boy named Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher). A police investigation is launched and Alex and Justine are questioned, but have no idea why this has happened, or where the children went. The school is shut down during the investigation, but after 30 days, it is reopened, and Alex is moved to a different classroom with another teacher.

The school principal Andrew Marcus (Benedict Wong), places Justine on leave as the wider community ostracizes and suspects her of what happened. Depressed, she resorts to alcoholism and a one-night stand with her ex-boyfriend and married police officer, Paul Morgan (Alden Ehrenreich). Justine also experiences nightmares about the missing children and a strange woman.

Since the investigation, Justine has not spoken to Alex. She discusses speaking with him to Marcus, who tells her he will not allow it. Justine attempts to speak to Marcus as he heads home, but he doesn't want to talk to her. Justine also attempts to talk to Alex's parents, but no one answers their front door.

Justine snoops around the house one day, and finds all the windows have been covered in newspapers from the inside. Peeking through an opening, she sees two figures sitting stock-still on a couch inside, feeling that the parents must be purposely ignoring her. Following this, she calls Marcus to insist on a wellness check regarding Alex.

She soon becomes obsessed with the house, watching it from her parked car up the street as the days go by. One evening after she's fallen asleep, a woman exits the house, gets into Justine's vehicle, and cuts off a lock of her hair.

Meanwhile, Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), the father of one of the missing children, struggles to cope after his son's disappearance. Frustrated by the ineffective police investigation, Archer decides to look into the case himself. Noticing the direction his son Matthew (Luke Speakman) was running on their front door's ring cam, he goes to another family and notes the direction their daughter ran away on their ring cam. Using a map, he figures out their running paths, and circles an area where he believes the children may have crossed paths that morning.

Before he met up with Justine, Paul had a run-in with James (Austin Abrams), a local drug addict and burglar. Paul assaults James after being poked by a needle during a search and orders him to leave town, afraid the dash cam footage of him roughing up James may get him pulled from the force. Stressed over the potential backlash if James makes a complaint, Paul spirals.

Following the assault, James breaks into Alex's house, believing it has been abandoned. Inside, he sees Alex's parents in a trance-like state and finds the missing children in the basement. Upon seeing a reward poster afterwards for their return, he heads to the police station but is intercepted by Paul who thinks he is coming to report what happened the other day.

James flees into the woods, where he spots a strange woman waving at him. Paul catches up with James, who convinces the paranoid officer about what he saw. With James locked in the back of his police cruiser, Paul drives them to Alex's house, leaving James in the car while he enters. Hours later, Paul emerges from the house, and drags James inside!

After giving in to Justine's request to call in Alex's parents for a wellness check, Marcus does so and is visited by Alex's Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan), who claims that his parents are ill and that she is now caring for the family. Despite her insisting that things are fine at home, Marcus says he must meet with Alex's parents, or he will be forced to contact the authorities.

Shortly afterwards, Gladys visits Marcus and his husband Terry (Clayton Farris) at their home. During a conversation with them, Gladys asks for a bowl of water, and after performing a ritual using a twisty stick, her blood, and a hair from Terry, possesses Andrew into killing his partner!

Repeating the same ritual but using the hair that was cut from Justine, Gladys sends Marcus after her, leading to him attacking her at a gas station where she is being confronted by Archer. She flees in her car after Archer fends off Marcus, with the possessed man giving chase before he is killed by an oncoming car!

Justine and Archer reconcile after the terrifying event, and he reveals his research to her in trying to find out where the children went. As she looks at his map, Justine identifies Alex's house in the circled area on it.

Prior to the disappearance of Justine's class, Alex's parents had agreed to take in his Aunt Gladys, whom they claim is very ill. Flashbacks show Alex's parents helping her into the house late at night after Alex is put to bed. Curious, he peeks into her room where he sees a red wig, a small tree, and the frail old woman watching him!

When his Dad doesn't pick him up the next day, Alex walks home and encounters Gladys and his parents at the dinner table, the two seemingly in a trance. When Alex grows upset at what has happened, Gladys swears him to secrecy with the promise of killing his parents if he tells what she has done. She demonstrates her powers by performing a ritual, wherein she makes the two adults attack themselves until Alex begs her to stop.

Alex continues to go to school as usual, and is tasked with purchasing soup and feeding his entranced parents. Shortly afterwards, Gladys falls ill again, and requests that Alex gather a personal item from each of his classmates to help her get better. When it seems like this may mean Gladys will leave and his parents will return to normal, Alex steals the personalized basket labels each of his classmates made for Justine's classroom. The next morning at 2:17 A.M., Gladys performs her ritual, and the children leave their homes, rush into Alex's house and down into the basement.

As the local police begin to investigate the children's disappearance, Gladys keeps up appearances to make everything seem normal. She has the children rush off into the nearby woods and has Alex clean the house when officers come by to inspect the place. She cleans up Alex's father and accompanies him and Alex when the police want to question the boy. Alex is also tasked with feeding his classmates soup.

Some time later, Alex returns home to find the entranced Paul and James in the house. Gladys claims she is growing weak again, and plans to leave the next day with Alex.

That evening, Justine and Archer attempt to enter the house, but set off a trap Gladys set, causing Paul and James to attack them! The two are unable to stop the two men, until Gladys takes Paul's gun and shoots them both.

A search of the downstairs leads Archer to find the children in the basement, but also Gladys who takes some dog-tags off Archer, and quickly performs a ritual that causes him to attack Justine.

Meanwhile, Alex is pursued by his parents after attempting to enter Glady's room. He manages to enter her room through the attached bathroom, and using some natural hair from inside her wig, one of her tree's branches and his blood, weaponizes the children against Gladys!

Gladys rushes from the house and through neighboring houses as the children pursue her, breaking down doors and bursting through windows. When they finally catch her they attack and rip her body apart, breaking the hold over Archer.

Archer rushes out of the house, and follows the trail of destruction to the children where he finds his son.

A closing voiceover tells that Alex's parents never recovered, and he was sent to live with another family member in another town.

The children were returned to their parents, but they too seemed to still be under the trance. Eventually, a few began to gain the ability to speak again after some time.