雷尼(约翰尼·德普 Johnny Depp 饰)的妻子出了轨,他发现她和另一个男人躺在床上,他提出了离婚。然而,婚姻的阴影并没能使雷尼恢复原气。他的文笔开始暗淡无光,找不到从前的创作激情。于是,他来到了一个湖畔小屋疗伤创作。然而这个小屋,却给他带来了新的麻烦。 首先是一个陌生人的造访令他十分恼火。那人声称雷尼抄袭了他的作品,雷尼百般解释也不能让他信服。于是雷尼翻箱倒柜,想找出原稿,却发现原稿离奇失踪。惊悚事件陆续有来,整个小屋,好像出于某种危险的情势中,雷尼非常害怕,然而却查不出缘由。是不是前妻和她的情人在作怪?他们到底有何目的?然而,真相却让雷尼自己都不敢相信。Mort Rainey is a successful writer going through a rather unfriendly divorce from his wife of ten years, Amy. Alone and bitter in his cabin, he continues to work on his writing when a stranger named John Shooter shows up on his doorstep, claiming Rainey stole his story. Mort says he can prove the story belongs to him and not Shooter, but while Mort digs around for the magazine which published the story in question years ago, things begin to happen around Shooter. Mort's dog dies, people begin to die, and his divorce proceedings with Amy continue to get uglier. It seems that Shooter has Mort over a barrel, but perhaps Mort has his own ideas on how to resolve all the problems that plague him lately.