Esme is an overwhelmed mother living in New York City. She has a two-year-old son and a daughter in kindergarten, and another baby on the way. When she takes the children to a museum one day, she meets a strange woman who works in the gift shop. The woman says she is a night nurse, and Esme will need help. As she is leaving, the woman tells Esme that she is also a witch which some mothers do not like. Esme cannot stop thinking about the woman over the next few weeks as she struggles to manage the children, and she finds the woman's website online and hires her. The night nurse, Wendy, is very odd, but she is good at her job and helpful. She gives Esme special skin ointment and oil for her hair. Esme is very grateful for the help, although the children are scared of Wendy. The nanny comes over to take care of the children one night when Esme and her husband go out to dinner, and she tells Esme that voodoo has been done in the house and that she is marked. Esme begins to feel more uncomfortable about Wendy because of her odd behavior. She tells Wendy that she is not needed anymore since her baby now sleeps through the night. Wendy refuses to be payed. Instead, she says her fee is that Esme must think a name before she goes to sleep, and in the morning they will be gone. Esme is scared, and stays awake all night by drinking coffee. She looks up Wendy again online, and cannot find any trace of the website she saw weeks ago. Instead, she finds an article saying that Wendy had murdered her husband and children and spent twenty years in a psychiatric facility. Mothers say that she earned their trust and stole their children. After several nights of not sleeping, Esme finally cannot fight it and starts to drift off. She cannot think of a name before she sleeps, and decides she doesn't want anyone to disappear. However, right before she falls asleep, she thinks that she would like to disappear. When Esme wakes up, her daughter is yelling that there is a lady. Her children do not recognize her, and none of her belongings are in the house. Esme's husband and mother in law yell at her to leave. Esme looks into her husband's eyes, and thinks that deep down he recognizes her because he looks at her with hatred.