Elizabeth Raymond (Shannyn Sossamon) is terrified by the deaths of four friends, three of which she personally witnessed, after they received chilling phone calls. The calls were sent from a dead friend's phone, but were apparently from the victims in the future, showing the exact time of their deaths and usually containing their last words. After every death, a small red candy is found in the victim's mouth. Beth reports these strange occurrences to the police; however, they think she is delirious. Detective Jack Andrews (Edward Burns), however, believes her, stating that his sister died in a similar way. Together, they begin to unravel the mystery of the chain of calls, but are unsure if they can figure it out before Beth's phone starts to ring the same eerie tune. They eventually trace the series of calls back to a woman named Marie Layton, who was apparently abusing her children, Ellie and Laurel, for attention, as in cases of Munchausen by Proxy. They learn that Ellie later died of an asthma attack, and that Laurel is in foster care after her mother went missing.
Believing that Marie is the force behind the murders, Beth travels to the recently burned-down St. Luke's hospital, where Marie was last seen, bringing Laurel in for a cut on her arm. After searching the hospital, Beth finds the body of Marie in the hospital ducting, where she apparently burned to death, clutching a cell phone. Marie's corpse moves and assaults Beth while weeping, and collapses when Detective Andrews makes his way into the ducting to help Beth. During this episode, the time of Beth's own phone call passes without her dying.
After contacting authorities, who arrive to collect the body, Beth returns home and Andrews goes to tell Laurel that her mother is dead. While visiting, Andrews finds a video disc in the back of Laurel's teddy bear. The disc is a video of a camera Marie hid in her children's room to monitor Laurel and Ellie. Ellie, clothed in a black hoodie, cuts Laurel's arm with a large butcher knife. Marie comes in and finds the children, realizing that the abuse she has been blamed for has been Ellie all along, and leaves to take Laurel to the hospital, locking Ellie in the bedroom.
Ellie, frantic, tries to force open the door, and suffers an asthma attack. Reaching for her inhaler, she finds it empty, and dies while dialing her mother's cell phone, making Marie the first real victim of the curse, dying in the fire. Laurel enters the room and Andrews says that it was Ellie who hurt her all the time, not her mother. Laurel nods, and speaking for the first time since the death of her mother, says, "But she always gave me candy," and holds out one of the red hard candies found in the mouths of all the victims.
Andrews realizes that the force behind the murders is Ellie, and races to Beth to make sure she's all right. Finding Beth unharmed, Andrews and Beth hear the doorbell ring and a knock on the door. Andrews looks through the hole, only to die of a knife in his eye, as dictated by the last call received. Ellie then reaches out to strangle Beth, but luckily the spirit of Marie appears and grabs Ellie, saving Beth again. Marie's ghost vanishes, leaving Beth to stare bewildered into the distance. Then the phone begins to dial a number showing that the curse has not ended. Ellie is still out there, and there is another victim that is going to die.
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