After serving fourteen years for assault, Max Cady is released from prison. He goes to the small town of New Essex, North Carolina, in search of Sam Bowden, the public defender who represented him at trial. Cady begins to stalk Sam, his wife, Leigh, and their fifteen-year-old daughter, Danielle. One day, Sam Bowden plays racquetball with an attractive colleague named Lori Davis. After the match, they flirt, but Sam reminds Lori he is a married man. In the parking lot, he is confronted by Cady, who menacingly recounts how many years he spent in prison after his case was lost. As he walks away, Sam overhears Cady mutter, “You’re gonna learn about loss.” That night, Sam suggests a trip to the family houseboat on Cape Fear River, but Leigh reminds him that Danielle, who was caught smoking marijuana at school, must attend summer school as a consequence. He jokes that marijuana is not such a big deal, and the two make love. Later, Leigh awakens to the sound of fireworks. She peers outside and sees Cady sitting on the wall that borders their property. She alerts her husband, but Cady is already gone when Sam looks for him. In the morning, Sam files for a restraining order against the ex-convict. He tells his colleague, Tom Broadbent, about the harassment, and confesses to burying evidence in Cady’s case: a report showing that his teenage rape victim was a promiscuous girl. Tom reprimands Sam for denying his client the best defense, but Sam argues the nature of the crime was so heinous that Cady deserved the worst possible punishment. Although he is worried Cady could have uncovered the buried report, he has doubts because he was illiterate at the time of the trial. Later, as Sam walks downtown, Cady drives alongside him in a convertible. The ex-convict informs Sam that he learned to read in prison, and after studying several law books, represented himself in appeals court. Sam suggests Cady wants a bribe and offers him $10,000 to go away, but Cady argues that money could never compensate for him getting raped in prison and being cut off from his young daughter. He remarks that Sam cannot comprehend his loss, then drives away. Back at his office, Sam gets a frantic call from Leigh, who informs him their dog has been poisoned to death. Behind a two-way mirror at the police station, Sam identifies Cady as the suspect. When Cady is strip-searched, Sam is disturbed by the tattoos covering his muscular body, many of them Bible quotes relating to vengeance. Cady is fined for poisoning the dog. Back in town, he stalks the Bowdens at a parade. Sam misses a racquetball date with Lori Davis, who gets drunk in an attempt to forget about him. At a bar, she is seduced by Cady, who claims he was arrested while protesting a nuclear power plant. She takes him back to her apartment, where he brutally beats and rapes her. In the morning, Sam visits a disfigured Lori at the hospital. Although he urges her to testify against Cady, she is too embarrassed to admit the details of her drunken night, or her unrequited love for Sam, in front of colleagues in court. Sam hires private investigator Claude Kersek to follow Cady. Meanwhile, Leigh’s suspicions are aroused when she learns Cady’s rape victim was Sam’s female colleague. She confronts her husband, who has been unfaithful in the past, but he insists there was no affair and tells her Cady is trying to drive the family apart. The next day, Cady approaches Leigh outside the Bowdens’ home to return her dog’s collar. When she realizes who he is, she tells him he is repulsive. Danielle appears in the yard, and Cady speeds away. That night, Cady calls Danielle, pretending to be her new drama teacher. He guesses that she is struggling with her burgeoning sexuality, and her parents’ unwillingness to treat her like an adult, and encourages her to use those emotions in her acting. He tells her that the class has been moved to the theater. The next day, she shows up at the theater, but finds only Cady onstage. Danielle cautiously approaches, and he offers her the marijuana cigarette he is smoking. She takes a puff from the joint, and confesses that she thought a lot about what he said on the phone. Eventually, she realizes he is the man who has been following her family. However, Cady promises not to hurt her and lures her in for a kiss. That night, after learning Danielle was approached by Cady, Sam takes Claude Kersek up on his offer to hire three thugs to attack him. However, when they jump him in a parking lot, Cady easily overpowers them. After secretly wiretapping himself, Cady uses a recording of Sam’s threats to obtain a restraining order. His attorney, a top criminal defense lawyer named Lee Heller, suggests Sam should be disbarred. Abandoning his faith in the legal system, Sam works with Kersek to devise a scheme to lure Cady to the house, since it would be lawful to shoot him if he were to break in. Sam pretends to leave town on a business trip but hides inside with Kersek, who rigs trip wires to the windows and doorknobs and stands guard overnight. When a wire is tripped, Kersek goes to investigate, but is relieved to find the maid, Graciela, in the kitchen. However, it is Cady dressed in a wig and Graciela’s clothes. Cady strangles Kersek, whose gun goes off. Sam, Leigh, and Danielle run downstairs to investigate and find both Graciela and Kersek dead. Sam takes Kersek’s gun, loads the family in the car, and drives to Cape Fear. Unknown to Sam, Cady is strapped to the car undercarriage. From a payphone, Sam calls police lieutenant Elgart and informs him of the murders and his family’s whereabouts. The Bowdens load groceries onto their houseboat and sail down the Cape Fear River. That night, a storm hits, and Sam goes to check the anchor. Cady pounces on him from the roof of the houseboat and strangles him until he loses consciousness. Cady goes below deck, where Danielle tries to stop him by hurling boiling water in his face. Unfazed, Cady locks her in a lower compartment, where she finds lighter fluid and hides it in her waistband. He handcuffs Leigh to a railing, and drags Sam, now conscious, into the kitchen. When he brings Danielle back into the room, Leigh tries to discourage him from raping her. As he lights a cigar, Danielle douses Cady with lighter fluid and his head catches on fire. He screams and jumps into the river, but pulls himself back on the boat. As the storm intensifies, he accuses Sam of burying the victim report, and Sam admits to it. At gunpoint, Cady instructs Danielle and Leigh to strip their clothes and get on their knees. The boat is rocked, and Cady is thrown. Leigh and Danielle escape by jumping into the river. Sam gets hold of Cady’s handcuffs and cuffs him to a pole. Cady fires two shots at Sam but misses. The boat is smashed to pieces, and Sam is thrown overboard. He washes up on the riverbank and sees Cady, still cuffed to a large chunk of the boat. He goes to smash Cady’s head with a rock but misses. The tide carries Cady back into the river, where he drowns. Later, Danielle says she and her parents do not discuss the incident, claiming that to live in the past is to “die a little every day.”