The film takes place in 1983, when woodcutter Red Miller (Nicolas Cage) and his wife Mandy (Andrea Riseborough) live in a wooden house in the deep mountains. Mandy is favored by a religious organization with distorted values, The Children of the New Dawn. The leader of the organization, Jeremiah (Linus Roache), tries to recruit Mandy into the organization but fails, so he burns her alive in front of Red. Red becomes insane for a time, and eventually embarks on a road of revenge.