In the past, the Crain family moves into the Hill House, as parents Hugh and Olivia are house flippers. Their youngest child, Nelly, struggles at night as she continues to see a woman she calls the 'bent-neck lady'. 

In the present day, oldest brother Steven is a successful writer who wrote a best-selling novel about his families experience at Hill House. He now meets with people who claim to have had encounters with ghosts and writes their stories.

Nelly calls her siblings and tells them that she is worried about her twin brother Luke, but no one takes her claims seriously as Luke is a drug addict. When Nelly calls her father, he hops on the first plane to California. And unbeknownst to him, she is at Hill House. 

Flashbacks from the kid's childhood at Hill House show disturbing paranormal activity. 

Having never seen the same things at the house as his siblings, Steven develops a cynical attitude about the supernatural. When he arrives home, he finds Luke leaving, haven broken into his house. He then finds Nell inside his apartment. However, Hugh calls shortly thereafter and reveals that Nell is dead. Steven then realizes that he has just seen his first ghost.