The film opens with a video clip of a young Maxine Miller (Charley Rowan McCain) doing a little dance routine while her father, Pastor Ernest Miller (Simon Prast), records her. She also repeats a phrase from her father that would later become her life motto: “I will not accept a life I do not deserve.”
1985 – Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) has starred in a number of adult films since her escape from the farm massacre in Texas, and is now looking to transition into Hollywood films. She goes to an audition for a horror film “The Puritan II”, written and directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). Maxine delivers a stunning audition and is then asked to show her breasts by the casting directors. Before leaving, Maxine tells Elizabeth and the others that they should just cast her because she’s going to be a star. On her way out, Maxine brags to the other actresses that she got the part.
Other ongoing events of the time include protesters rallying against “The Puritan II”, claiming it as a work of satanism that has claimed the lives of others. A serial killer known only as “The Night Stalker” is on the loose, terrorizing California.
Maxine maintains communication with her agent, Teddy Knight (Giancarlo Esposito), who works to help her secure roles. She shares the news of her “Puritan” role with her friend/roommate Leon (Moses Sumney), along with a fellow porn star, Amber James (Chloe Farnworth). Amber invites Maxine to a party in the Hollywood Hills, but she declines since she has to work at her other job. Maxine’s second job is at a live peep show, where she has a client waiting for her. The man is unseen but wears black gloves and a dark suit.
After work, Maxine walks with her friend Tabby Martin (Halsey), who also invites her to a party, but Maxine once again declines. She splits off from Tabby and is followed by a man brandishing a knife. Maxine pulls her gun on him, then forces him to strip naked and then to suck on the gun. Maxine caps it off by stomping on the man’s testicles with the heel of her shoe, causing them to graphically burst.
At Maxine’s apartment, she receives a package from the mysterious figure, who is being driven by a man named John Labat (Kevin Bacon). Maxine opens the package and finds a video of herself filming the porno from the farm. Later, the figure kidnaps Tabby and Amber while recording the incident, then leaves them tied up and dead in the lake. The next morning, they are found by Detectives William and Torres (Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale). Tabby and Amber are found with satanic symbols branded into their faces.
Before going on set, Maxine meets with an FX artist (Sophie Thatcher) to make a mold of her head. When the woman leaves, Maxine is left sitting still, but she is haunted by her time on the farm, especially her encounter with Pearl. Maxine falls over before the artist returns to help her back up. She later receives a message with a phone number. She calls it and is answered by Labat, who tells Maxine to meet him at a specific location.
Maxine finds Labat at a restaurant, where he tells her that his employer is looking for her, and that they both know about Maxine’s involvement in the farm massacre. Maxine denies having anything to do with it. Labat tells her to meet the employer at a location on Starlight Drive that night, or else Labat will expose Maxine for being on the farm that night. Williams and Torres find Maxine and try to question her on Tabby and Amber’s murders, but she refuses to talk to them.
Maxine begins working on “The Puritan II”, finding that Elizabeth really is as much of a hardass as she was told. Later, Maxine finds that Labat is following her. She puts her keys between her fingers and punches his face repeatedly, leaving him bloodied up. Labat then declares that things are now personal between them.
Maxine stays home reviewing her script instead of going to the location. Down in the video store where Leon works, he is cornered by the figure, who slashes Leon repeatedly before stabbing him to death. In the morning, Maxine is horrified to find Leon being wheeled out of the store, and Williams shows her that he was also branded with a satanic star.
The detectives once again try to get Maxine to cooperate with them, but she still won’t budge. She also talks to Teddy to try and get protection against Labat, but Teddy cannot find any info on the guy. Maxine returns to set, where she meets Molly Bennett (Lily Collins), star of the last “Puritan” whose character died but is resurrected for the sequel. Maxine chats with Molly on the way to her trailer, and Molly also mentions a part in the Hills.
Maxine then sees Labat following her once again, and she runs through the studio’s sets before security catches Labat and gets him out. He continues to follow Maxine later that night, but she tricks him into getting cornered by her, Teddy, and a third guy, Shepard Turei (Uli Latukefu), who knocks Labat out. They bring him to a junkyard where they trap him in his car and slowly crush him to death while he pathetically begs for his life.
Maxine starts to consider what Williams told her about stopping more murders from happening. She decides to go to the address that Labat gave her, which is in the Hills. At the house, Maxine discovers that her stalker is her father, Ernest. He has also killed Molly and kept her dismembered remains in a suitcase, and also killed Maxine’s friends to frame them as victims of the Night Stalker. He knocks Maxine unconscious and ties her up, revealing his intentions to make a film using footage of the murders exploiting the evils of Hollywood as retribution for Maxine running away from home to become famous. Maxine is put up for an intended “exorcism” scene with a cult of Ernest’s followers.
Williams and Torres arrive on the scene, engaging in a shootout with Ernest’s goons. The detectives and Maxine chase Ernest going up the Hollywood sign. Torres is fatally shot, while Williams gets stabbed in the eye with a cross and falls to her death, but not before having shot Ernest and bringing him down. Maxine aims a shotgun at him while police fly overhead. She then envisions her fame from bringing the “Night Stalker” to an end and living out her dreams of fame. Before pulling the trigger, Maxine tells Ernest that he didn’t fail her, and that he gave her the divine intervention she needed. She then blows his head into chunks.
Maxine later returns to work on set as a heroic survivor. Elizabeth leads a moment of silence for Molly before resuming work. She privately tells Maxine that while Molly will be missed, she didn’t have a future beyond the “Puritan” films, unlike Maxine. Elizabeth asks her what is next, and Maxine simply says that she never wants her fame to end.
