At her mother's funeral, grieving young actress Violet receives a "comforting" kiss from her new stepfather, Maxwell. To the world, it's paternal care. To Violet, it's a trigger of pure terror—Maxwell is the man who orchestrated her most traumatic, violating night. Now, he has meticulously infiltrated every aspect of her life: controlling her fledgling career, posing as her grieving stepfather, and holding the reins to her late mother's estate. Trapped in a gilded cage of his making, Violet must find a way to expose the predator hiding behind a mask of respectability, or be consumed by the darkness he has brought into her home.