Jack (Jack Nicholson) is a writer. One winter, he got a job guarding the Hilltop Inn. This was exactly what Jack wanted. He could have a quiet place to write. So Jack moved into the hotel with his wife and children. In winter, the roads were blocked due to heavy snow, and there were only Jack's family of three in the Hilltop Hotel. From the moment they moved in, Jack's wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) found the atmosphere strange here. Jack's son Danny (Danny Lloyd) often saw people he didn't know, but there was no one else here except their family. In addition to writing quietly all day, Jack's temper became increasingly eccentric. Until one day, Wendy realized that her husband had been writing only one sentence these days: Jack is crazy!