Terry Lambert returns to his mother's boarding house after spending two years in prison for his participation in a gang rape. Thelma is shocked and thrilled that he is home, and immediately begins to baby her son. Thelma makes an exception to her policy of accepting only elderly women as boarders when she allows a young woman named Lori Davis to move in. Tension rises quickly as Terry and Lori notice one another and Thelma attempts to keep them apart. Still, Lori flirts with him outrageously. Meanwhile, next-door neighbor Louise takes an interest in goings-on at the Lambert house, eventually making a failed attempt at seducing Terry. During a conversation with Terry, Thelma expresses a wish that Tina, the young woman that Terry was convicted of raping, were dead. Terry gives Thelma her wish, then embarks on a killing spree, targeting the women who have given him trouble. Eventually he suffers a breakdown and Thelma realizes what he has been doing. Together, they dispose of the evidence, but Thelma knows that Terry's days are likely numbered.