Satiajit Wilcox is a psychoanalyst based in Los Angeles. Most of his clients are celebrities but he remains broke. A fellow therapist offers him to take care of the therapy of the greatest American horror writer: George Mothershield.  This is a big opportunity for him, for his career as well as his finances. In return, he has to be available at all times and move to Oregon, where the author lives.

During a preliminary meeting with Martha, George Mothershield’s wife, Satiajit notices her peculiar attitude, aloof and sensitive. She explains the therapy entails to watch a list of movies, including 2001: A Space Odyssey. Her husband has always been really keen about cinema but is now obsessed, and especially with Kubrick’s work. She wonders where does it come from and whether it is the reason why he doesn’t write anymore. Satiajit is hired to help George Mothershield to find his inspiration back.

Satiajit talks about is potential departure with his wife, Penny Brodekker. She is pregnant but they both agree that he will go in Oregon. One night in an amusement park, Satiajit has an uneasy feeling when enjoying the fright of a haunted house full of mirrors. He thinks he has spotted a dark shadow following him in the reflection of one of them. A few days later, his step parents come for a visit. Their relationship is complicated and they react badly, the news drawing old arguments. Satiajit leaves in this tense situation.

When he arrives in Oregon, George Mothershield eludes him. He leaves Satiajit a video to watch and an audio tape to listen to guide him on the property. When Satiajit finally meets him, George, teasing at first, warms toward his therapist and share his obsession with 2001. For him, the movie is the key to a setup from Hollywood. “They want an image” is what George Mothershield keeps repeating.

Satiajit receives a phone call from a certain Tony Buchanan. The man is quite assertive and asks him not to enter the mirror. Satiajit doesn’t understand the threat and believes in a hoax. The day after, he talks to George about the call and asks information. However, even after confirming his possession of such an item, the writer pretends not to understand.

Yet, everything changes when, once more, the writer gives another audio tape to Satiajit, leading him to the attic. George Mothershield tells him this is where the source of his inspiration lays. Unsettled, Satiajit walks into the room and starts when he sees his reflection in a huge mirror. Hypnotised, he goes closer in order to touch it when his hand passes through…

In order to understand what links him to the mirror, Satiajit will have to let it show him. Indeed, the mirror seems to take him to moments from his past of which Satiajit has got no memories. This is how he sees his parents again, Joe and Wilma, and discovers how the mirror entered his life for the first time, when his father brought it home. Most of all, this is how he witnesses his first time through it, as a child.

Meanwhile, George Mothershield tells everything he knows about the mirror to Satiajit. It is linked to Charles L. Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland’s writer. A friend of his, Peter A. Ghallager, was the owner and well-known for his influence in the firsts steps of cinema. Intrigued, Satiajit digs deeper into the story. Fetching a photo album owned by Peter Ghallager, George shows how powerful and dangerous the mirror can be. Satiajit succeeds to go through one of the picture depicting a young girl dressed-up like Alice and the mirror. The experiment turns into a nightmare.

Satiajit keeps searching the mirror history and books a meeting with an antique dealer specialised in mirrors. The man tells him about dark creatures guarding mirrors. When he goes back to the property, his doesn’t succeed to meet with George Mothershield but is invited by his wife. The meeting ends with a disquieting vision that scares Satiajit before he could identify what it was. The next day, when Satiajit goes to join George for their session, he stumbles upon a group of policemen and EMTs. They inform him of George Mothershield’s death. When Satiajit comes closer to the body, George straightens up one last time to whisper to Satiajit to watch a video and use the mirror.

Satiajit watches the video inside the mirror, where he finds George Mothershield. The writer reveals to Satiajit that he is imprisoned inside the mirror, in a sort of maze. The whole world is an illusion, even his wife Penny. Now, Satiajit has to learn why he is in this dimension in order to go back to his reality and find the mirror that lead him through this one. George offers him to help him, because he is a prisoner of the mirror too and feels related to Satiajit.

A chase begins. Martha Mothershield – in fact a terrible creature – tries to kill Satiajit to prevent him to cross the mirror. Once through, Satiajit finds the writer again. In his opinion, Satiajit’s detention his linked to a movie. Crossing multiples movies, Satiajit learns he let a child go out of one, making a fiction enter reality. This is the reason why he was punished. In the following movie Satiajit enters is one shot by Peter Ghallager. When Satiajit meets him, Ghallager wants to kill him. But then, he explains to him that he is setup, a pale copy of a known character, trapped by his decision in the mirror’s world, always coming back to the moment where he decides to take George Mothershield in therapy. Usually, at time point of his life, Ghallager tortures Satiajit and kills him, but this time he chooses to let him go. In exiting the world, he will accomplish what Hollywood wants. Create an image.

Satiajit escapes only to appear in 2001 final scene. He stumbles upon George. Moved, he explains to him they are related. George is Satiajit father, Joe, also detained and punished. In exchange for his detention, he was able to choose the life he wanted, but like his son, he lost all of his memories. The mirror brought them  back together. They now have to look for Wilma, still on the other side, in the real world. When they are about to leave, Tony Buchanan helped by Martha, stop them. They threaten Penny. Joe sacrifices himself to create a diversion. He is killed by Tony Buchanan in order to let Satiajit go through the first mirror that takes him home.

Satiajit exits the mirror and walks into a New York shop. A picture of his mother in hand, all he has in mind is to find her. She works in buildings, the World Trade Centre. A plane passes low in the sky above Satiajit. This is September, 11th 2001.