Dimas knows he's in trouble when the Americans in his tour group beg him for ghost stories. All the ones he knows reveal the political strife wracking Indonesia, from the massacring of communists to the internal conflicts tearing the nation apart. Still he tells them of Indonesia's ghosts. One of the tourists, Rose, asks him to perform the ritual of jelangkung to bring her dead son's ghost back. Dimas refuses, but his excuses rapidly dwindle as horrific fates befall the other members of the tour group. One breaks his leg, another gets arrested with a fistful of ecstasy, and the third has a seizure and wanders off into the night. Finally, Dimas agrees to jelangkung, and the true reason for his reluctance comes to light - Dimas himself is haunted. He accidentally abandoned his best friend, Ari, to burn to death. Ever since, ghosts have hunted him. During the jelangkung, a monstrous shadow emerges from the ghost world and kills Rose. Dimas awakes alone beside her dead body, unsure what happened but convinced he has unleashed a colonizer's disease in the form of a malicious American demon upon his people.