In the small rural town of Heavenly, the Roth family home burns down to ash, leaving nothing but Beau Roth's body hanging from a rafter, unburned and cut open. Police Chief John Peck arrives on the scene with his officers. They find Beau's body and begin the search for the other members of the household. They find Beau's wife, Mary Roth, in a nearby field, curled up and covered in soot. She tells them that her daughter, Cindy, has been gone for a long time, so they leave the scene and take Mary in to be questioned to figure out what has happened. The scene is a mystery, with inconsistent burn patterns, no clear cause of the fire, and Beau's bodies untouched by the flames that should have consumed him. At the station, Peck asks Mary if she knows what happened. She begins by telling him that Beau has been abusive for years, raping both her and Cindy and physically abusing them, oftentimes when he was drunk. When Cindy turned fourteen, she ran away on her own after years of begging Mary to run away with her. She disappeared for a few months and eventually returned, but was a darker, colder version of the child who left. Mary tells Peck that Cindy had been possessed by the devil, and that Beau tried to kill her one day. That is how the fire started, Mary claims. Beau tied up Cindy and raised an axe over her, prepared to kill the devil woman, but before he could, Cindy burst into flames and attacked Beau, sending him flying across the yard. She then entered the house engulfed in flames, and when she came out she disappeared, leaving only ashen footprints. He asks if she knows where Cindy went, and she tells him about a place Cindy described to her just outside of Heavenly with black footed boys, where she said her mother could become happy and strong just like her. After questioning Mary, Peck heads to the place outside of Heavenly with his youngest officer, Ty, to investigate further and to try to find Cindy. He wants to find evidence that will corroborate Mary's story and protect her when the state police take over the investigation, because they will not be as sympathetic as he is, as a local who knows Mary. When they arrive to the opening of trailers in the woods, the sun is setting like a drop of blood in the wrong direction, coyotes follow them as they track through the woods, and the energy of the place feels tense and frightening. They move on, Peck determined to solve the case, and run into a small boy who tells them that Cindy is in a nearby trailer. When they arrive at the trailer, Cindy is on the porch waiting for them. The boy from earlier is now on the roof of the trailer with other boys, and a fire erupts. Ty shoots one of the boys, and Peck, hoping to win Cindy's favor and save himself, shoots Ty dead. His efforts are in vain, and a whirlwind of flames and a black raptor descend on him before turning into a black footed man, presumably the devil himself. Cindy stands on the porch laughing as the devil man breaks Peck's legs, throwing him into the flames to be devoured as he tries hopelessly to crawl away.