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Years following the events of Shining (1980), a now-adult Dan Torrance must protect a young girl with similar powers from a cult known as The True Knot, who prey on children with powers to remain immortal.

Years after the traumatizing events at the Overlook Hotel, Dan Torrance is now an alcoholic struggling to find a job. He moves to a small town in New Hampshire and becomes "Doctor Sleep". He then meets Abra Stone, a teenager with the brightest shine he's ever seen. When he learns that a cult of evil beings called The True Knot are chasing her with the intent to eat her shine, he does everything in his power to protect her...including returning to The Overlook.

Tormented by the past's uncomfortable memories, decades after surviving the harsh winter at the Overlook Hotel in Shining (1980), a now-adult Dan Torrance still fights his inner demons. But he is fighting a losing battle. Having suppressed his rare gift, Dan reluctantly puts his powers to good use as the benevolent "Doctor Sleep" of a New Hampshire hospice. There, Dan catches the eye of the mysterious Abra Stone, an extraordinary teenager gifted with far more superior shining abilities. As their unbreakable telepathic bond attracts unwanted attention, the semi-eternal psychic vampire, Rose the Hat, and her marauding gang of followers known as "The True Knot" close in on the innocent and their life-giving essence. Once more, the snow-covered purgatory's restless spirits invite Dan over for one last winter. However, does Danny dare return to Room 237?—Nick Riganas

Dan Torrance became an alcoholic and restless drifter all over the US since surviving a boyhood trauma, on top of an abusive drunk father, as intended victim of the True Knot, Rose the Hat's band of evil 'vampiric' nomads, who survive barely aging by absorbing the 'steam' (life force) of kids they abduct and torture to death or occasionally enlist, like sadistic siren Lucy Stone. Dan finds a new home in a New Hampshire town, where Samaritan Billy Freeman introduces him to an AA community and becomes his neighbor by paying the grumpy landlady an advance, even arranges a fitting job at the local hospice, where Dan's remnant "shining" power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying, which a prescient cat indicates. The blackboard in his room also enables him to be contacted mentally by evanescent Abra Stone, an exceptionally strong telepath, able to ward off Rose psychosomatically, but therefore indicated as greatest-ever prize to her searcher Crow Daddy. Dan Billy and Abra team up to search the True Knott and strike first, which proves harder and bloodier than either expected, with a frosty final fight in a Colorado bunker.—KGF Vissers

Dan Torrance has tried to run away from his past, namely the fact of his supernatural ability to "shine", in combination with the associated events at the Overlook Hotel the winter when he was five, when his parents took on the winter caretaker jobs at the otherwise closed hotel and the evil supernatural powers at the hotel which overtook his father, Jack, who almost killed him and his mother, Wendy, that winter. Dan has turned to alcohol to cope. It isn't until he moves to Frazier, New Hampshire, befriends Billy Curtis, who sees in him the signs of being an alcoholic, and gets a job as an orderly at a hospice where he can use his ability to shine to comfort patients that he finally feels at peace with himself. It is then when he is contacted by someone through her own ability to shine, she, a tween named Abra Stone in nearby Anniston, New Hampshire and feeling in Dan a kindred spirit, who eventually warns him against evil powers, True Knot, led by Rose the Hat, who are looking for others who shine to kill them to feed off their energy for greater power and supposed immortality. Dan has to decide what to do with this information, he who may want to live in his newfound peace, but who may not be able to run away from Rose and True Knot regardless, especially in they looking for the most powerful, he and his new friend Abra among those.—Huggo

Florida, 1981

A little girl named Violet Hansen (Violet McGraw) is out on a camping trip with her family. One afternoon, she wanders into the woods where she finds a woman sitting alone by the lake. She introduces herself as Rose The Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), and she charms Violet with magic tricks. The girl then notices other people lurking nearby, watching them. Rose tells Violet that she has a bit of magic in her, right before she and all the other people in the woods converge on Violet.

Elsewhere, Danny Torrance (Roger Dale Floyd) is still getting over the trauma from his ordeal at the Overlook Hotel. His mother, Wendy (Alex Essoe), has become concerned since he hasn't spoken since their time there, but he still has nightmares of the spirits from the hotel, such as the Grady Twins and the Bathtub Lady from Room 237. As part of his "shine" powers, Danny can see spirits like Dick Hallorann (Carl Lumbly). He shows Danny a trick to keeping evil spirits away by showing him a box that he can use to trap them. Wendy then runs out to find Danny on the bench, but nobody is next to him.

That night, Danny and Wendy are watching TV together. Danny excuses himself to go to the bathroom, where the Bathtub Lady is waiting for him. He uses a box in his mind and manages to trap her inside. He returns to his mother and starts talking to her again.

Jump to 2011, where Dan (now played by Ewan McGregor) lives in New Jersey and is an alcoholic. He gets into a violent bar fight where he knocks a man unconscious and later hooks up with a woman from the same bar. As he wakes up in the morning, he finds the woman's child and is put off by this.

In Long Island, a teenager named Andi (Emily Alyn Lind) meets with an older man who found her on a website. Rose and her right-hand man, Crow Daddy (Zahn McClarnon), are watching her from a distance. Andi is able to manipulate others to do what she says before leaving a cut on his cheek, resembling a snake bite. Impressed, Rose catches Andi outside the theater and takes her with her and Crow. They take her to their hideout, where Rose tells Andi that she has special powers that work in favor of their cult, The True Knot. Rose nicknames her "Snakebite Andi" and promises her that they can "eat well, stay young, and live long."

Anniston, New Hampshire

Abra Stone is celebrating her 5th birthday. In the kitchen, her parents Dave and Lucy (Zackary Momoh and Jocelin Donahue) notice that Abra has somehow made a bunch of spoons float up to the ceiling. She simply says "Abra Cadabra" and makes them hit the table.

Dan arrives in Frazier, NH, to start a new life. He meets and befriends a local man named Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis), to whom Dan admits he is running away from something. Dan finds a place to stay, with Billy vouching for him to the landlord.

That night, Rose brings Andi out by the beach for a ceremony. The eldest True Knot member, Grampa Flick (Carel Struycken), leads the ceremony. Rose pulls out a canister containing the shine of Violet, presented as some kind of powerful steam. Rose feeds Violet's shine to Andi while the other True Knot members get their share of it. Andi writhes and screams until she has absorbed the shine.

Dan has a nightmare in which he sees a spirit sleeping next to him. He goes to Billy for help, and he brings Dan to an AA meeting. After the meeting, Dan is introduced to Dr. John Dalton (Bruce Greenwood). Dan notices Dalton clutching his wrist, and then approaches him by saying that he left his watch in a bathroom, which is something only Dalton would have known. Astonished by Dan's insight, and influenced by Billy's good word, Dalton gives Dan a job working at the hospice, as he has some experience as an orderly.

During one night shift, Dan is mopping the floors when he notices the hospice's cat, Azzie, going into the room of an elderly man. The man knows that whenever Azzie goes into someone's room and sits on their bed, it's because Azzie knows that person is going to die. The man appears frightened at first until Dan reassures him telepathically that dying is just like going to sleep. Comforted, the man nicknames Dan, "Doctor Sleep." Within moments, the older man is gone, indicated by his breath leaving his body. When Dan returns home, he finds "Hello" written on his wall, with a smiley face in the O. He simply writes back, "Hi."

Eight years later, in present-day 2019, Dan has remained sober. During a meeting, he discusses his feelings with never having known his father, only feeling close to him whenever he drank. It made him realize that his father fought the same battle he did, but Dan has chosen to come out better. He continues his work as an orderly to tend to patients who are about to die. He also maintains contact with Abra (now played by Kyleigh Curran).

The True Knot hasn't had a good feed in a while, relying mostly on leftovers from kids with shines that aren't as powerful. They track a young baseball player, Bradley Trevor (Jacob Tremblay), whose shine helps him out during games. The True Knot follows him home, and Andi makes him get in their van. They take him to a secluded area where they pin him down and brutally murder him, feasting on his dying screams. Abra senses the murder and begins screaming in her home, crying to her parents that the boy has been killed. Rose is able to sense Abra's presence there as well, referring to her as a "looker." At this time, Dan sees "REDRUM" written on his wall. He asks Abra "Who," and she writes back "Baseball Boy." The True Knot then buries Bradley in a shallow grave.

Abra does some research into Bradley's disappearance. At school, she is able to hear the thoughts of her classmates. When she gets home to her room, she has visions of the True Knot and their whereabouts. She looks outside her window and floats briefly as she is connected to Rose, who is at a supermarket. Rose manages to see Abra and come into contact with her, but Abra expels Rose from her head, which causes a strong enough push to send Rose across the floor. She is amazed by this power, but also threatened by it. Rose brings this information back to Crow, stating that her shine might be too powerful for the True Knot, and so they must destroy her.

Dan and Abra eventually find each other and explain their gifts to one another, which Dan calls "The Shining," or "Tony" since he thought it was like having an imaginary friend. Abra thought Dan was her imaginary friend. After she tells him about the True Knot, he warns her against using her shine in any way that could attract their attention.

At night while at work, Dan follows Azzie into a bedroom where he reencounters Dick for the first time since childhood. He warns Dan about what the True Knot really does and also urges him to protect Abra since they share a connection. Dick also lets Dan know that this will be the last time he sees him.

Rose meditates and manages to get into Abra's head while she's asleep. She finds what looks like filing cabinets and tries digging through them, but Abra anticipated Rose would come back, so she traps her hand in the drawer, causing Rose to tear her skin as she pulls her hand out. She snaps back to her regular body and sees her injury followed her. She reports to the others that Abra set a trap for her, and so it is now clear that she has to be killed. Crow then informs Rose that Grampa Flick is "cycling." Too weakened to keep going, he convulses until he decays, and the cult absorbs his steam.

Abra makes contact with Dan again and asks for his help in finding Bradley's body since she can locate the cult if she touches his baseball glove. With Billy's help, Dan is guided by Abra to the site where the boy's body is buried. Dan and Billy dig up the body, horrified and physically repulsed at the discovery. They take the glove back to Abra's house, but Dave has learned about Abra's contact with "Uncle Dan" and thinks Dan is some kind of creep. After explaining everything to Dave and revealing their powers to him, Abra manages to track the cult and deduces their destination.

Dan and Billy go into the woods to bait the cult using Abra, who is appearing from her kitchen. Dan and Billy hide and begin shooting at the cult members, and Rose feels the pain as each of them are killed off one by one. Billy shoots Andi, but she uses her last breaths to manipulate Billy into fatally shooting himself in the head. Meanwhile, Crow kills Dave and abducts Abra. Dan returns home and is able to link his mind to Abra's and briefly possesses her. Together, they cause Crow to steer into a tree, and since he wasn't wearing his seat belt, he's ejected through the windshield and is killed instantly.

Dan drives up and locates Abra. They then drive off to make their last stand at the now rundown and condemned Overlook Hotel. Dan walks through the building where his lifelong trauma was born. He finds Room 237, still with the ax markings left by Jack. Dan walks to the mezzanine and meets the bartender, Lloyd (Henry Thomas), who bears a striking resemblance to Jack, though he insists he is just Lloyd. Dan recounts how Wendy died when he was 20, and how he knew she was dying due to the flies that he would see around anyone who was close to death. Lloyd then drops the facade and channels Jack before downing the drink he offered Dan. Rose soon arrives, and Dan and Abra team up to trap Rose in the icy hedge maze. Abra manages to wound Rose by cutting her legs, but Rose overpowers them and breaks free. Abra runs while Dan faces Rose. She gets into his mind and sees all the fear and trauma he endured in that hotel, which allows her to start absorbing his shine. Rose then sees the boxes of the Overlook spirits and thinks they contain more power, but Dan instead unleashes them to use against Rose. The Grady Twins, Bathtub Lady, and other spirits surround Rose and consume her shine, destroying her for good. But they soon turn their attention to Dan and possess him. He finds Abra, but she is able to tap in and reach Dan, saying he made a stop to the boiler room. Knowing what is going to happen, Dan sends Abra out as he takes the spirits with him to the boiler room to let the Overlook finally go up in flames, while Abra watches outside.

Sometime later, Abra continues to communicate with Dan's spirit. When her mother asks her about it, she at first denies anything, but then admits she was talking to Dan as well as her father. Lucy appears okay with Abra's powers. Before they watch TV together, Abra excuses herself to go to the bathroom. The Bathtub Lady is in there waiting for her, but Abra is already one step ahead of her.