A year after dropping out of her creative writing program, Alex finds herself working at the ticket booth of a down-and-out theater in the town where she formerly attended college. One night, after watching a recent movie titled “Contrition,” an old man commits suicide by walking into traffic directly in front of the theater. The shameless owner of the theater keeps running the movie, however, given that he gets paid for each showing as opposed to collecting funds solely on the tickets and snacks. Once they shut down for the night, Alex can’t stop thinking about the old man, holding onto a receipt that flew out of his wallet when he was hit.  The next morning, Alex arrives at work, wondering why the place hasn’t chosen to close for a few days out of respect. Talking with her coworkers, they all wonder why the man killed himself and why he wanted to watch the movie before doing so; was his suicide premeditated, or had the movie pushed him to do it? The day goes on slowly, with even fewer customers than normal. The film continues to upset people, as one woman walks out of the theater and vomits in the lobby, and another has to be escorted out by an usher named Emily for crying so loudly. Alex enters the theater to find David, a coworker, as he is cleaning up for the next showing. She finds him seated, staring at a black screen that vibrates and shifts, as if it were covered in black fur. Alex leads the dazed David out of the theater and hallucinates black fur covering her arms and scratching around her collar. She walks to the bathroom to wash her hands, but finds Emily in there crying and cutting herself with a pocketknife. Emily is carving her skin along a memorial tattoo she recently got for her brother who killed himself, murmuring about how she should’ve helped him. Alex tries to calm her down, but Emily keeps cutting herself; finally, Alex gets the knife out of her hand and one of her other coworkers drives Emily to the ER.  Alex continues working into the night, both because her manager threatens to fire them if they leave, and because she is afraid to be alone with nothing to do but think about the movie. She begins asking David what he saw when he was in the theater, but he is unresponsive. He arises, saying he’s going to get food nearby, but instead he follows a man who has been harassing the female workers of the theater for weeks. Alex hears glass break then David returns covered in blood; he smiles and bids her adieu.  Finally, Alex decides that she must know what this film is showing and why everyone who views it seems to be going insane. She enters the theater with her only remaining coworker, Kara. On the big screen, Alex witnesses all the worst sins of her life flash across the screen, from childhood to the recent death of her grandfather, whom she neglected in preference for a new boyfriend. Looking at the tearful Kara, she knows that she must be witnessing a film of her personal sins as well. Exiting the theater apologetic and sorrowful, Kara and Alex make a plan to show the film to as many people as possible by advertising midnight showings of more popular films but forcing them to watch Contrition instead. Though they are prepared for backlash, once the film starts, not a single soul attempts to leave; they all stay to watch their life’s sins from start to finish. Most leave feeling sorry, but some kill themselves or others, and still others are unmoved altogether. Though Alex feels healed from her former sins, she continues to go to bed every night, hearing her grandpa asking where she is.