Introduction:

The movie begins with a young girl, Anna (Emily Browning), making out with her boyfriend Matt on the beach at a party. After telling Anna he loves her and “has a condom”, she gets up to leave. As she goes, her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel) asks if everything is all right. On her way through the woods to her house, Anna encounters three white garbage bags. When she goes to open them, the cadaver of a redheaded girl falls out. As Anna recoils, the girl’s head snaps around and speaks. Screaming and afraid, Anna runs home. She then hears a bell, that her terminally ill mother rings when she needs something. Anna is concerned because her mother is not supposed to be alone. However, after she leaves the boathouse her mother is in, it explodes into flames and a piece of debris comes flying towards her, burning her. It is then revealed that this is a dream Anna is having.

She has been in a mental hospital since the death of her mother ten months earlier, but her psychiatrist believes she is ready to leave. He tells her to “finish what she started”. As Anna packs, another patient comes in, asking Anna who she will tell her stories to now that Anna is leaving. Anna’s father takes her home, where she is joyfully reunited with her sister, Alex, who is angry, asks why Anna never responded to the mail she sent her. Anna then tells her that she never received any letters; Alex yells at their father for not sending them. He ignores her. Anna also sees Rachel (Elizabeth Banks), her mother’s former nurse who is now dating Anna’s father. Later that night, Anna overhears Rachel and her father having sex, so she turns up her music to a louder volume. She also has nightmares about a dead body trying to grab hold of her, but when she wakes up, it is merely Alex standing over her.