Outside of the police chief’s office, a young detective named Mark Newton watches as a small stoat hunts down a rabbit, killing the larger animal quickly. The chief asks Newton if he’s heard of The Tin House and Newton replies that it was before his time in the office but he remembers seeing it on the news. He recalls that a seventy-year-old man named Lord Alfred Kirkwood who lived alone in the house went missing and his neighbor had found the deserted house with lights off but a warm bowl of tomato soup on the kitchen table. 

The chief is impressed by this recall and says that since it has been six months since Kirkwood disappeared they are now considering him dead and stopping the search. Now that the man is presumed dead, his nephew will inherit everything. The chief asks Newton to go and re-photograph everything in the house to prevent the nephew, Jeremy, from claiming in a lawsuit that the police damaged any property, as the Kirkwoods are famous for their lawsuits. 

The chief explains that the first Lord Kirkwood made his fortune selling African Americans he enslaved to plantation owners in the Caribbean. With the money he made from this, he bought twenty thousand acres and built a mansion. 

Newton drives thirty minutes to the coast where the house is, and where he used to spend his childhood summers. He remembers finding a note from his aunt addressed to his mother before their relationship broke down that read, “So you’re finally going to leave your mark on the world.” He thinks that “your mark” refers to him. As he approaches the house, Jeremy appears and when Newton invites him inside the nephew refuses, saying he’s always had a violent allergic reaction to the place. Newton walks inside to the kitchen and he takes pictures of the appliances. In the driveway, Jeremy stares up at the house fearfully. 

While he is photographing the master bedroom, Newton hears a quick rapping noise on the tin wall. He places his hand up to the spot and the wall vibrates powerfully against it. When he walks away, the sound changes to a steady clattering. He grows irritated and slams him palm back on the wall, causing his skin to itch. The sound reminds him of his aunt’s letter and seems to ask if he has “left his mark on the world.” He kicks the wall, making a hole he knows he will have to document. He takes a picture of the dark hole with flash and is stunned to discover a human face in the photograph. 

Newton runs out of the house and passes Jeremy who asks him what he saw. Newton doesn’t respond and gets in his car. He positions the vehicle to face the structure and turns on his brights, illuminating the front of The Tin House. The detective grabs a crowbar and begins to attack the house and Jeremy yells at him in protest, threatening to report him. He shows Jeremy that the house’s framework is covered in human flesh. Newton tells Jeremy that his family still lives on the money made in the slave trade and that his ancestors were superstitious the ghosts of enslaved people would come back for revenge, so they covered the house in the skin of their dead enslaved people to ward them off. 

Jeremy tells Newton he has always known the house was haunted but never knew about what was behind the tin. Jeremy tries to cover up the skin with the tin again but as he does Newton spots a strand of hair. He tells Jeremy a DNA test will likely trace the hair back to his uncle. Jeremy remembers that he’s the next in line and realizes that whatever killed his uncle will soon come for him. He yells at the detective to protect him and strikes him in the face with a sheet of tin, causing Newton to bleed profusely. 

Newton passes out and when he wakes up he witnesses what looks like the skins melting off the side of the house. The skins appear to have wrapped themselves around Jeremy, dissolving him and Newton leaves the scene knowing the people are finally free.