It tells the story of Stanley, played by Judd Nelson, a script writer who begins killing girls for research for a movie he is writing, where the villain does the same thing.

After speaking with his agent, Regan, over the phone, Stanley accesses a hidden room in his house revealing a young woman who is chained to the floor by her ankle.

The next morning, he dives to the bottom of Summit Lake to tend his "garden", which consists of several women kidnapped and drowned in a similar fashion.

Intrigued by her self-confessed fear of water, Stanley follows Mallory after she leaves work and swerves in front of her, slamming the brakes on his van and forcing their vehicles to collide.

The van is completely empty except for the recording of barking dogs, and an ominous message spelled out in yellow tape that reads, "I'm the person your mother warned you about."

Stanley attempts to drown her in the lake, but she is quickly rescued by local police officer Boone and a couple who owns a movie special-effects shop nearby.

After taking time to recuperate, Mallory suggests making a plaster-mold of herself, with a camera as an eye, to catch the killer when he returns to his garden.