User:Autonymous/sandbox

Plot
A 22-year-old woman named Martha has been living as a member of a cult living on a farm in the Catskill Mountains for some time. The charismatic cult leader, Patrick, gave her the name Marcy May upon her arrival. However, one morning she runs through the woods to a a nearby town. In a diner, she has a conversation with Watts, a cult member, who indicates he would have given Martha a ride into town, and suggests she return, but she doesn't.

Martha calls her sister Lucy, who picks her up and takes her to the vacation lake house in Connecticut that she shares with her husband, an architect named Ted. While staying with Lucy and Ted at the lake house, Martha exhibits strange behavior: swimming in a public lake naked, sleeping all the time, not eating, and arguing with her sister and brother-in-law about how to live. Lucy reveals she abandoned Martha and is now attempting to get her back into her life, while she and Ted are also trying to have their own child. One night, Martha climbs into bed with Ted and Lucy while they are having sex, angering Ted. Martha then telephones the cult via a landline, and hangs up when one of the female members answer using the code name Marlene Lewis.

Flashbacks reveal a series of disturbing events that preceded her departure from the farm. These include a scene involving ritualistic sex with Patrick in an initiation ritual. Martha subsequently initiates contact with Patrick resulting in sexual intercourse, and otherwise acts in a manner indicating her acceptance of her place in the cult and its beliefs and practices, including the indoctrination of another young woman and giving her a drugged drink prior to that woman's ritualistic sex with Patrick. She also displays some behavior indicating resistance to the cult, such as her refusal to shoot a cat when instructed to by Patrick. She subsequently participates in burglaries with the other cultists, one of which culminates in the stabbing of a homeowner. Earth's reaction to the stabbing results in Patrick forcefully subduing her and berating her for her failing to follow the cult's idea, which regard death as a heightened experience.

Lucy and Ted host a party at their home. Martha appears agitated during the gathering, and there is an ambiguous episode in which she accosts the bartender as a cult member, and has to be sedated. Ted attempts to convince Lucy to send Martha to a psychiatric hospital, an idea Lucy rejects.

Later that night, Martha has a nightmare and a panic attack. Ted tries to help her, but Martha kicks him down the staircase. Lucy threatens to send Martha to a psychiatric hospital, to which Martha angrily responds that Lucy will be a terrible mother. The next day, Lucy and Martha reconcile somewhat, and Martha goes swimming. She sees a man resembling a cult member watching her from the shore, and leaves the water. When Martha departs the house with Lucy and Ted, she looks behind from the backseat as a car follows them.