Judith Krieg and her husband Michael Krieg finally find their dream house, a turn-of-the-century craftsman near the beach. It seemed too good to be true since it’s in the tony Pacific Palisades neighborhood of LA. But it came at a price. It formerly belonged to Judith’s Dad and he’s going to live in the guesthouse. And he’s got a cat and Judith hates cats.
In a spinning class led by the super-fit Cornel, Judith fends off jokes about their new swell dwelling and dismisses the urban legend of their new home’s hidden stash of mob money. She gets into a serious spin bike battle royal with the instructor Cornel while her hapless husband Michael watches on. Susy, their friend, and Realtor, watches amusedly. Judith beats Cornel who gets in a huff but seems to injure her eyes in the process. Michael is suspicious that his wife and Cornel have been getting it on (she has) and starts to feel like a cuckold. Cornel blithely wanders into the women’s shower room to rekindle the affair but is rudely rebuffed by Judith, who says it’s over. He leaves in a foul mood.
Michael, a photographer, gets a last-minute gig which requires him to travel to London and he persuades Judith to accompany him in spite of them moving into the new house. She reluctantly agrees to go with him but, while riding at home the next day, is struck down with sudden onset glaucoma in the middle of a spinning session and falls to the ground in agony.
After successful eye surgery, she gabs on the phone to her estranged father Richard who remarks on Judith’s inability to deal with any kind of pain and suggests going to London so soon after the operation might not be ideal.
As they move into the new home Judith senses they are being watched by someone but she can’t put her finger on it.
Susy, their friend, and realtor brings around some paperwork and a molcajete and tejolote, a pestle and mortar for making guacamole complete with avocados and red pepper. Susy seems to get a bit too smoochy with Michael and Judith can sense that Susy, who used to date Michael, is rekindling the affair. Michael, equally, senses something has happened between Judith and Cornel but can’t prove anything.
But Judith and Susy head for the kitchen where there is a rapprochement and both women giggle at the phallic shape of the tejolote. It also looks like it could make a handy weapon.
But during the first night in her new home, Judith wakes in agony after removing her eye shields. The eye doctor prohibits her from traveling to London and Michael heads off the next day on his own.
In the morning Judith gamely stumbles into the loft on waking and discovers Cornel assembling a Peloton bike for her. He brought it to apologize but is surprised to find her not in London.
As Judith tries out the new bike she is interrupted by an unknown prowler who appears in the video chat screen and actually takes over the whole video screen. He has wired the bike up to give off electric shocks when she falls below a cadence of 80 RPM and warns that there is also a bomb that will explode if Judith doesn’t tell them where the money is hidden. She can’t tell the stalker (who looks and sounds like Susy), where the cash is because she doesn’t know where it’s hidden.
Judith, sweating and spinning away, fights off the fatigue and electric shocks for a couple of hours while the Unknown Prowler presses her for the location of her father’s hidden cash. A cop appears at the door (a neighbor called in after seeing some smoke from Judith’s singed hair) and Judith, her father drowning in a bathtub in the guest house, has to play dumb as the prowler listens in. The cop is suspicious but she manages to fob him off and he leaves.
Judith manages to dash back to the guest house and turn off the bath taps before Richard drowns then staggers back to the main house before the Unknown Prowler becomes too suspicious.
The Unknown Prowler keeps pressing: “Where is the money?” but Judith can’t answer what she doesn't know. After more excruciating riding there is another visitor — he says he’s a cop but Judith, still temporarily blinded, doesn’t realize that it’s Cornel in a fake cop’s uniform. He’s exhausted from leading the bike class with her and now tries to wheedle the location of the hidden cash in person. But she hasn’t discovered it herself — yet. Judith quickly figures out that this is Cornel in a fake uniform and, in a rage, he vents his fury on her. She also discovers that Cornel is Richard’s bastard son and her half-brother — like the prodigal son returning to seek his inheritance which he’s been cut out of. She throws up in disgust. She also stumbles upon the hidden cash at the bottom of the sofa when she literally sniffs it out with her nose. Cornel stabs suspiciously at the couch but finds nothing — it’s underneath the cushions and he’s still in the dark regarding the money.
Cornel drags Judith to the guest house but can’t get any sense out of his elderly father Richard and gouges his eyes out in a rage like the Duke of Cornwall tearing out the Duke of Gloucester’s eyes in “King Lear.”
Judith, desperate and distraught, is dragged back onto the bike while Cornel scours the house for the hidden cash. Her father manages to call out “Wait Until Dark” from the backyard but she fails to make the connection to wait for sundown as Cornel watches her, completely exhausted, shakily spin once more. Now resolute, she manages to drag her exhausted frame off the wired bike and shocks herself and Cornel in the bargain then rubs hidden chili powder into his eyes. He switches off the hidden bomb and they, like true siblings, get into a battle royal as he hurls her around the living room, the couch revealing more and more of its hidden treasure with each sweaty sitting but Cornel remains oblivious.
Judith manages to use Alexa to turn off all the lights but Cornel stabs her in the arm. We think she’s going to pass out from fright but she has found some inner strength now and won’t be cowed. Susy arrives and we find out she was in on the scheme all along. The local cop comes back, Cornel kills him but Judith brains Cornel with the pestle which she hid in her leggings and he crashes onto the couch and it splits, showering him with choking dust and ancient dollar bills.
Cornel nearly chokes to death after Judith beats him in an epic fight using the pestle. Judith, hesitating at killing her half-brother, is reluctant to finish him off, but Susy shoots Cornel. She then fires at Judith but narrowly misses and as she brings the gun closer toward Judith, a small shot rings out — Judith’s dad Richard has shot Susy with an old antique pistol using only the sound of her voice to aim.
Days later her eyes are almost healed, the house tidied up and Judith’s husband Michael, home from London, quizzes her about replacing the mysteriously chipped pestle but Judith, playing dumb, is now changed and battle-hardened and insists they keep it, chip or no chip. Her father, though sightless, is happily listening to Lawrence Welk on the “TV” as they admire a place setting made up of folded currency from the once-hidden stash.
Extreme Screenwriting - Recommended.