The film follows famous author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) and Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson), a struggling writer who temporarily moves to the remote mansion of the Crawfords to work as a ghostwriter for Verity. When Wanneer Lowen discovers something strongly reminiscent of Verity's chilling autobiography, she is startled by the disturbing revelations about Verity's husband Jeremy (Josh Hartnett). At the same time, the distinction between fiction and reality, manipulation and attraction, chance and obsession increasingly blurs.