In the small village Goksung in South Korea, police officer Jong-Goo investigates bizarre murders caused by a mysterious disease. His partner tells a gossip for him that a Japanese stranger that lives in a secluded house in the mountains would be an evil spirit responsible for the illness. Jong-Goo decides to visit the Japanese with his partner and a young priest that speaks Japanese. They find an altar with a goat head and pictures of the infected people that died on the walls. However they are attacked by the guard dog and they only can leave the place when the stranger arrives. Jong-Goo finds one shoe of his beloved daughter Hyo-jin in the house of the stranger and soon she becomes sick. His mother-in-law summons the shaman Il-gwang to save her granddaughter while a mysterious woman tells Jong-Goo that the stranger is the responsible. Who might be the demon that is bringing sickness to Goksung?