A suburban house in Nerima, Tokyo, is the epicenter of a supernatural curse known as ju-on, which is born from a violent and angry death. Once created, the curse lingers in the location where the death occurred, killing or causing the disappearance of anyone who comes into contact with it. The story spans several decades, beginning with an original incident in 1952 and weaving through multiple timelines that connect the fates of investigators, victims, and the cursed house itself.

In 1952, a man kidnaps a woman, holds her captive in the house, and subjects her to repeated sexual assault, which results in a pregnancy. He eventually locks her in a hidden attic space, where she dies after giving birth. This woman becomes the Woman in White, the original ghostly manifestation of the curse. Both the child and the man later disappear, but the house is now permanently tainted. The narrative then jumps to 1988, where a young actress named Haruka Honjo moves into a small apartment and begins hearing the sounds of children running across her floor. She brings a cassette tape recording of these events to Yasuo Odajima, a writer obsessed with ghost stories, for his investigation. Yasuo learns that Haruka’s boyfriend, Tetsuya Fukazawa, recently visited the cursed house while house-hunting and believes the haunting followed him. Shortly after confessing this, Tetsuya dies, prompting Yasuo, Haruka, and Tetsuya’s mother to track down the house.

Concurrently, in 1988, a high school student named Kiyomi Kawai is lured to the same abandoned house, known locally as the cat mansion, by classmates who have arranged for a young man to sexually assault her there. After the assault, Kiyomi hides in a closet and becomes possessed by the Woman in White. In the years that follow, Kiyomi remains infected by the curse, eventually having a child with her rapist, who is also consumed by the curse’s influence. Her child later falls into a coma, and Kiyomi ultimately kills her husband. In 1997, Kiyomi returns to the house, where she sees a vision of Yasuo as a child in 1960 through the glass doors. She breaks through the doors, becoming the dark spirit that will later terrorize others.

Yasuo’s personal connection to the horror is revealed when he realizes that he and his family lived in the cursed house in 1960, eight years after the original murder. At that time, he and his sister discovered the secret attic and the Woman in White, who handed Yasuo her baby. When a dark spirit appeared, Yasuo dropped the child, and he watched his father vanish into thin air. Yasuo and his sister were separated into foster homes, and he was later told his sister died of illness. In the final timeline of 1997, Yasuo, Haruka, and Tetsuya’s mother visit the latest family living in the house, a man and his pregnant wife. The wife is attacked by the spirit of the original kidnapper but escapes. The husband, however, suddenly vanishes in the street. Tetsuya’s mother sees the true decayed form of the Woman in White and is presumably killed. Convinced they can end the curse, Yasuo and Haruka decide to bury all objects associated with the house on its grounds. Haruka buries the cassette tape from her 1988 haunting. As she does so, she sees the spirit of Tetsuya’s mother, whose crying momentarily stops, but Haruka soon hears a crying baby. The spirit of the original murderer appears behind her and drags her back toward the house, proving the curse remains unbroken.