A few days before Christmas, the traveling entertainer Marc Stevens is stuck at nightfall in a remote wood. An odd chap who’s looking for a lost dog leads Marc to a shuttered inn; the owner gives Marc a room for the night. Next day, the innkeeper, Mr. Bartel, promises to fix the van and warns Marc not to get too close to the nearby village. At dinner that night, Bartel laments his wife who has left him, and by next day, Marc is in a nightmare that may not end.