In Santa Monica, California, John Form, a doctor, presents his expectant wife Mia with a rare vintage porcelain doll as a gift for their first child to be placed in a collection of dolls in their daughter’s nursery.That night, the couple is disturbed by the sounds of their next door neighbors, the Higgins, being murdered during a home invasion. While Mia calls the police, she and John are attacked by the Higgins’ killers. The police arrive and shoot one killer, a man, dead while the female killer kills herself by slitting her throat inside the nursery while holding the doll. News reports identify the assailants as the Higgins’ estranged daughter, Annabelle, and her unidentified boyfriend, both members of a cult.Annabelle 2014.
In the days following the attack, a series of paranormal activities occurs around the Forms’ residence. Afterwards, Mia gives birth to a healthy baby girl. She and John name their child Leah. The family rents an apartment in Pasadena and, after finding the doll that John had discarded since Annabelle’s previous attack in one of their boxes, another set of paranormal events plagues Mia and her daughter. The next night Mia is haunted by a malevolent presence in her apartment. She believes it to be Annabelle’s ghost after she encounters a dark and terrifying figure in the building’s basement. The demonic figure begins pursuing her before she escapes by running out the emergency exit and ascending the stairs.
Mia calls back Detective Clarkin to gather information about Annabelle and the cultists and learns that the cult intends to summon supernatural beings. With the help of bookseller and fellow tenant Evelyn, Mia realizes that the cult practiced devil worship, which summoned a demon who followed the family after they moved to their apartment so as to claim a soul. Upon returning home, Mia and Leah are attacked by the demon who reveals itself while manipulating the doll. Mia and John contact their parish priest, Father Perez, who informs them that demons sometimes attach themselves to inanimate objects as an advantage to accomplish their goals and that a human soul must be offered for a purpose.