The opening scene of the movie depicts people attending the opening party of an art gallery.
The museum's curator, a woman named Susan is seen
wearing a sad expression while watching the unfolding scene.
After the exhibition, the woman drives off to her luxurious mansion.
The next morning, Susan is seen watching a movie on her TV, but she gets slightly irritated
by the contents being displayed.
Her butler informs her that she'd received a package that morning, and she discovers
that it is the draft of a novel written by her ex-husband, Edward.
From the note, Edward informs her that he was inspired to write the novel after she left him,
and he would love for her to be the first reader before he publishes it in the spring.
He also informs her that he's currently in LA and he would love to see her before traveling
the following week.
Susan notices that the title of the novel is Nocturnal Animals.
Susan's husband, a man named Hutton later arrives, and Susan proceeds to ask him about
why he wasn't at the art gallery the other night, but her husband informs her that he
would be late for a business dinner if he stopped by.
Susan informs him that 15 minutes of his time would have been enough for her.
She also asks why he didn't come to bed last night, and his excuse is that he doesn't want
to wake her up, but Susan says she can't sleep the whole night.
The wife then suggests that they go on a beach vacation, but Hutton says he needs to go back
to the office, and then fly back to New York for another business meeting.
He further informs her that he needs to get this deal done if he doesn't want to go broke.
Here we learn that Hutton is having a hard time with his business, and that the couple
is in financial trouble.
Later that night, the couple attended a party at Susan’s friend's house.
Alessia, Susan's friend asks her if she has not been sleeping well because she looks stressed,
so Susan says despite having wealth and everything in her life, she still couldn’t find herself
to be happy.
She asks Alessia how she is happy with her married life,
and she responds that because her husband is gay,
they are best friends and completely love each other,
and she is certain that she is the only woman in his life.
Hearing this, Susan says she doesn't share the same relationship with Hutton.
Alessia wonders if Hutton had ever been faithful to her, but Hutton interrupts their conversation
as he has to leave for New York.
Susan wishes him luck on his impending business deal, aware of just how badly he needed it,
while her eyes reflect a mix of concern and longing.
Later that evening, Susan turns to sleeping pills, and a novel gifted to her by Edward.
The book bore her name on the dedication page, and as she delves into its pages, the story unfolds.
The tale commences with a family embarking on a road trip to Texas.
Tony, the head of the family, steers the wheel while his wife Laura accompanies him.
Their daughter, India, complains about the loss of cell service, and Tony cherishes the
isolation of West Texas, a place void of phones and people.
India also questions the purpose of their journey to Texas, and Tony reminds her of
the upcoming family reunion, a prospect that doesn't seem to thrill India.
Soon, their peaceful drive is disrupted by two slow-moving cars that blocks their path.
Tony honks his horn, prompting one car to yield momentarily, but India starts the trouble
by giving them the finger.
As a result, the cars soon become more aggressive, harassing them and eventually causing a collision.
They force Tony off the road, and a man named Ray approaches, saying that Tony is supposed
to stop when there’s an accident.
Tony suggests that they just go to the police to resolve the matter, but one of the men
says it isn't possible because he got a flat tire.
Tony is then told to try driving away to find help, only to discover that his tire is indeed flat.
Seeing this, Ray offers to fix it, claiming they are good men.
Tony has no choice but to comply; he is asked to get out of the car and retrieve the spare tire.
As the men work on the tire, the women are forced to get out of the car because they
need to lift the car up on the jack, which they do reluctantly.
Soon after, Ray's behavior toward India becomes increasingly inappropriate,
leading to a confrontation with Tony.
Ray retaliates with violence, and Tony is forced to back down.
Once the tire is repaired, the women hurriedly reenter their car and call out to Tony.
Unfortunately, Ray and Turk promptly seize control of the vehicle and drive away,
while Tony is powerless to stop them.
Susan, gripped by the suspense of the novel, closes the book, her breath heavy with anticipation.
She calls her husband who is in a hotel with a lady grabbing his arm, and asks why he didn’t
call after he reached New York, so he says he doesn’t want to wake her up.
Hutton tells the elevator operator to go to floor 31, and Susan wonders because it is
not their usual floor, and Hutton answers that their regular room was not available.
When they reach the floor, the operator says, “31 madam”.
Susan freezes, realizing her husband is with another woman, and she tells him to take care
and hangs up.
Returning to the novel, Susan resumes reading from where she left off.
Tony was left alone with one of the men, Lou,
who threatens him to drive or risk never seeing his family again.
Anxious and fearful, Tony scanned the roadside for any sign of his wife and daughter.
He then spots their car parked beside a trailer but finds no one nearby, while Lou reassures
him that Ray wouldn't harm his family, telling him to keep driving.
Eventually, they arrive at a dark and desolate location where Lou forces Tony out of the
car and abandons him.
The poor man is walking alone in the dark
when he hears his own car driving there, and he flees into hiding.
Luckily, Tony manages to evade Ray and Lou when they return,
looking for him and then leaving.
Alone and in distress, Tony wanders along the roadside until morning,
when he comes across a farmhouse.
Desperate for help, he asks to use a phone.
At the police station, a police lieutenant named Bobby, inquires about the events,
and together, they retrace Tony's steps from that fateful night.
Bobby couldn't comprehend why Tony let the men to drive off with his wife and daughter,
even if they haven’t got any guns.
Their search led them to a barbed wire fence, and as they venture further in the middle of nowhere,
Tony's heart freezes as he comes face to face with the lifeless, naked bodies
of his wife and daughter on a crimson sofa.
Susan gasps and sheds tears at the tragic turn in the story.
She closes the book, momentarily overwhelmed by the emotions it has stirred within her.
Her mind wanders back to a chance encounter with her ex-husband, Edward, in New York.
He bears a striking resemblance to Tony the novel's protagonist, and he's in town for
a scholarship interview at Columbia University, while Susan is pursuing her graduate studies
at the same institution.
In the bustling city, Susan invites Edward to dinner.
As the night unfolds, the scene shifts to a cozy dinner where Edward confesses that
Susan was his first crush.
When Edward tells Susan that she has same eyes as her mother, Susan's reaction is unexpected;
she grows upset, saying she doesn’t want to be like her mom.
Edward also asks her why she gave up becoming an artist, and her response is laden with
self-doubt, claiming she had become too cynical.
He then tells her that she underestimates herself too much.
Hearing this, Susan smiles and asks him if he could come home with her, and confesses
he was her first crush too.
Returning to the gripping novel, Bobby, the police officer, tells Tony that the cause
of his family's death has been determined.
His wife had suffered a fractured skull, while his daughter had been suffocated and ended
up with a broken arm.
The horrors don’t end there; both endured sexual violations before their tragic deaths.
Bobby also reveals that fingerprints of Tony's wife and daughter were found on the trailer,
where his car had been parked that fateful night.
They are now on the trail of the trailer's owner.
Then, Susan's thoughts take her to a flashback of a dinner with her mother.
Their conversation turns sour as her mother expresses anger over Susan's decision to leave
New York, and return to Texas to be with Edward and marry him.
Her mother disapproves of Edward, deeming him weak and beneath their status.
Susan defends him, but her mother predicts that she would one day regret her choice,
convinced that Edward couldn't provide the luxury of life she deserved.
She then tells Susan that she may not realize it yet, but she and her mother are actually more alike.
Susan denies this and claims they have nothing in common, to which her mother responds,
"Just wait."
The memory fades, and Susan decides to reach out to Edward, deeply moved by his book.
She expresses her desire to meet with him and praises his work as one of the most incredible
she had ever read.
Back in the novel's world, Tony receives an email from Bobby containing a photo of their
only lead, a man named Turk.
Tony identifies Turk as one of the suspects, but there was no recent information on his whereabouts.
Days turn into months, and the investigation seems to stall.
One day, Bobby calls Tony with news about his family's murder.
Tony shaves off his beard and meets with Bobby the following day.
Here Tony learns that three men had attempted to rob a supermarket, with one escaping,
one getting caught, and one fatally shot—Turk is the dead one.
Bobby then asks Tony to identify the captured suspect.
At the police station, Tony recognizes the man immediately; it is Lou, the one who had
left him in the desert that horrifying night.
Lou initially denies any knowledge of Tony, but Tony's vivid recollection of their shared
ordeal left Lou with no escape.
Bobby presses Lou for information about Ray and Turk, but Lou claims ignorance.
Using Tony's testimony and the fingerprints they discovered on the car and the trailer,
Bobby takes Lou to detention, and informs Tony that he’s going to charge Lou with murder.
The officer assures Tony that he will find Ray, whom he believes to be the third suspect
in the robbery who managed to flee.
Meanwhile, Susan finds herself lost in thought again, now at her office.
Her staff notices her distraction, attributing it to her lack of sleep.
Susan shares that she is no stranger to sleepless nights, a trait her ex-husband had humorously
dubbed her a "Nocturnal Animal."
She also finds it odd that her ex-husband sent her a book titled Nocturnal Animals that
is both violent and depressing.
When the assistant asks if she loved her ex-husband, Susan says yes, but she didn’t have faith
in him and in his writing.
Here she admits to having done something terrible to her ex-husband before brutally leaving
him for the charming and attractive Hutton.
During a board meeting, they are discussing about firing a certain employee, and Susan disagrees,
saying they should support the employee since they were the ones who hired her.
One of the board members reminds Susan that she was the one who wanted changes in the company,
and Susan suddenly changes her mind, saying that it is sometimes not good to change
things as they were, which might reflect her regret at the change she made in her life.
Returning to the novel, we accompany Bobby and Tony as they embark on a mission to confront Ray,
the prime suspect.
Despite Ray's lack of fingerprints at the crime scene and a clean record, Tony remains
convinced of his guilt.
The encounter unfolds as they invite Ray to the police station.
During the ride, Bobby asks Ray if he recognizes the car they are riding
and the man who’s driving, and Ray says he has no idea.
Tony, who is crying, turns around and looks at him.
He reminds Ray of the unspeakable horrors he and his friends had inflicted on his wife
and daughter that dreadful night.
The weak denial from Ray is met by the cold, unyielding click of handcuffs as Bobby swiftly
takes him into custody.
Bobby informs him that anything he says will be used against him in court.
They then bring him to the trailer, where Ray and his men assaulted Tony’s wife and daughter.
Here Tony asks Ray to tell the exact story of what happened that night, but he tries
to deny it again, causing Tony to get mad and punch Ray.
Return to a time when Susan and Edward were still together.
Susan reads a draft novel written by Edward and tells him that it isn't good enough,
telling him that he should do something else instead of writing.
Edward gets insulted, and Susan states that she simply wants to be realistic, and that
she cannot see the future based on what he is doing.
Hearing this, Edward remarks that Susan is beginning to sound like her mother, and the
two begin to argue.
Later at school, Susan meets Hutton, her future new husband.
Back to the narrative's core, Tony receives a distressing call from Bobby;
Ray has been released due to a lack of concrete evidence.
The two meets at a nondescript diner, where Bobby reveals a devastating truth:
Bobby has lung cancer with a mere year left to live.
Forced into retirement, Bobby harbors an unwavering determination to see justice prevail,
even if it means straying from the confines of the law.
This was to be his final case, and he refuses to watch a murderer go free.
Meanwhile, another flashback unveils a heart-wrenching scene: when Susan is about to dump Edward.
She tells him that their relationship is not working because they are too different.
Edward tries to persuade Susan not to end their relationship, but Susan says she wants
a better future for herself, and she is unhappy with him.
Returning to the novel's gripping narrative, Bobby apprehends Ray in a bar, resolute in
his pursuit of justice, regardless of legality.
He brings Ray into his camp, and Lou, the second suspect, is brought in by another officer.
With Bobby's health deteriorating, he entrusts Tony with a firearm.
However, as Bobby has to throw up, two suspects try to escape, but their attempt turns chaotic
when the determined Bobby is forced to shoot down Lou.
Ray, however, manages to evade capture.
The narrative abruptly shifts to Susan in a clinic with Hutton.
Inside the car, she expresses remorse for her actions and concern that Edward might find out,
and that’s when we discover that Susan just had an abortion with Edward’s baby.
Hutton tries to reassure her that Edward is unaware of the situation, but then, a heart-wrenching
encounter unfolds: they see Edward standing outside their car crying.
We now realize that Edward's meek nature caused him to lose his wife and child, and that Tony,
the protagonist of his book, was inspired by himself, whose meek nature also caused
him to lose his wife and daughter.
Back to the book; Tony screams as he sees Lou dead, and now it's coming back to him,
the regret that if he had just fought harder for them, he would not have lost his wife and daughter.
Feeling bad for him, Bobby consoles him, and says he is a good man.
He then asks him to get up because they have to chase Ray, and they split up.
Driven by a newfound resolve, Tony tracks down Ray at a trailer house, the gun trembling in his grip.
Ray, taunting and dismissive, believes that the nice and weak guy like Tony is incapable
of pulling the trigger.
It is at this point that Ray admits to the heinous assault on Tony's wife and daughter,
saying he had fun and enjoyed inflicting pain.
When Ray tells him again that he is too weak to do anything about it,
Tony fired two shots, but not before Ray struck him with a crowbar.
Injured and disoriented, he wakes up the following morning, and we see Tony was hit in the eye.
Tony struggles to find his way out, and we see Ray who is lifeless on the floor.
Outside the house, Tony stumbles and accidentally falls on his own gun.
He is panting and struggles to breathe until he finally succumbs to his death.
We move back to Susan; she immersed herself in a bath, her thoughts drifting toward Edward.
While in bed, she receives an email from him asking when and where she wants to meet up,
a glimmer of hope rekindled.
The following day, Susan prepares herself, removing her ring and mustering a smile,
eager to see her ex-husband once more.
The anticipation mounts as she arrives at the restaurant,
waiting for hours that feel like an eternity.
Iced tea after iced tea, she keeps looking at the entrance, but Edward never shows up.
Here she slowly came to the realization that Edward had taken some kind of creative revenge
by abandoning her to deal with the consequences of her decisions.
A profound sense of regret washes over her, bringing a painful reminder of the choices
she made that led to her marriage falling apart and an unfulfilled life.