Plot
In 1967, in Santa Monica, California, a medical student, John Form, presents his expectant wife, Mia, with a rare vintage porcelain doll as a gift for their first child, to be placed in a collection in their daughter's nursery.
That night, after watching the news about the Tate murders and the Manson Family, the couple is disturbed by the sounds of their next-door neighbors, the Higginses, being murdered during a home invasion. While Mia calls the police, she and John are attacked by the Higginses' killers. The police arrive and shoot one killer, a man, dead while the female killer kills herself by slitting her throat inside the nursery while holding the doll. News reports identify the assailants as the Higginses' estranged daughter, Annabelle, and her boyfriend, both members of a cult.
In the days following the attack, a series of paranormal activities occur around the Forms' residence. Afterwards, Mia gives birth to a healthy baby girl, whom they name Leah. The family moves to an apartment in Pasadena, California. After finding the doll (which John had discarded since Annabelle's previous attack) in one of their boxes, another set of paranormal events plagues Mia and her daughter.
Mia calls the detective who handled the original case and learns that the cult intended to summon a demonic spirit. With the help of bookseller and fellow tenant Evelyn, Mia realizes that the cult practiced devil worship, which summoned a demon who followed the family after they moved to their apartment to claim a soul.
Upon returning home, Mia and Leah are attacked by the demon, which reveals itself while manipulating the doll. Mia and John contact their parish priest, Father Perez, who explains that demons sometimes attach themselves to inanimate objects to achieve their goals, and that a human soul must be offered for a purpose. Unable to exorcise the demon, Father Perez takes the doll to seek help from the Warrens. But before he can enter the church, the demon impersonating Annabelle's spirit attacks him and grabs the doll.
Father Perez is hospitalized, and when John checks on him, the priest warns him that the demon's true intention is to claim Mia's soul. That night, while Evelyn is visiting Mia, the demon uses Father Perez's physical form to sneak into the apartment and abduct Leah for her mother's soul. To spare her daughter, Mia attempts to jump out of the window with the doll, but John and Evelyn arrive in time to stop her. Evelyn decides to take her life in Mia's place instead as an atonement for causing a car accident that killed her daughter, Ruby, years ago. As Evelyn lies dead on the road, the demon and the doll disappear. Mia and John never see or hear of the doll again, and Leah is safe inside her crib.
Six months later, a mother buys the doll from an antique shop as a gift for her daughter Debbie, a nursing student. It is seen stored and locked away in a glass case in the Warrens' artifact room.
