Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) is just the kind of tortured, addlepated writer you'd expect to find all alone in a backwoods upstate New York cabin, in his ubiquitous ratty, moth-eaten robe, hair disheveled from the couch pillows on which he's constantly sleeping, Jack Daniels bottle lurking conveniently on the coffee table, and a blank page in his typewriter. It comes as no surprise that Mort's been unceremoniously dumped by wife Amy (Maria Bello), whom he found cheating on him in a hotel room with unctuous Ted (Timothy Hutton). Not much for Mort to do then besides rattle around his cabin, trying (sorta) to stay awake long enough to pound out a few sentences of his latest work of fiction–until, that is, a black-hatted, good ol' Southern boy calling hisself John Shooter (John Turturro) shows up on the doorstep accusing Mort of plagiarizing his short story, “Secret Window,” several years ago. With only a few days to prove to this Shooter that his story was his own before the guy makes good on his threats to kill everyone Mort knows, Mort finds himself with a sticky situation on his hands–literally, as pretty soon first his dog, then his neighbors, start turning up with screwdrivers sticking out of them.