When she hears of a potential spontaneous combustion death of a woman who leapt from a building rooftop, she begins her own investigative work in spite of her boss Eli's demands.

After spending Christmas Eve with her boyfriend Hank's antisemitic family, Kim returns home and continues to read the book; she inexplicably becomes violently ill and blacks out, missing an entire day of work.

Inside, Kim experiences bizarre hallucinations and witnesses her hands contorting together, and her legs twisting into a spiral.

After the ordeal, Kim returns home and calls a police detective to her apartment, but they find no trace of Hank's body.

When confronted by Ricky, Kim agrees to acquiesce to the cult's wishes, which entail an initiation ritual in which a human sacrifice must take place; they ask her to kidnap Hank's younger brother, Lonnie, to be sacrificed.

Lonnie is hospitalized after using a pair of roller skates given to him as a gift that contain rockets in them, causing him to lose control.