David Lynch wrote and directed this visceral and disturbing meditation on evil. Lynch uncomfortably grafts a fetid film noir onto a bright and cheery Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mystery, resulting in a profoundly unsettling satire/horror film concerning the subterranean surfaces of small-town Middle America. In the picture-perfect town of Lumberton, college student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) returns home after his father (Jack Harvey) has suffered a debilitating stroke. In the fields behind the well-manicured suburban homes, Jeffrey finds a severed ear. He takes the ear to Detective Williams (George Dickerson), who is cryptic about the ear. But Williams' daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern), who is attracted to Jeffrey, tells him that she has overheard her father speaking about a singer named Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini). Sandy thinks there is some connection between Dorothy Vallens and the severed ear. Jeffrey and Sandy decide to investigate the mysterious Dorothy Vallens on their own --as Jeffrey says, "No one will suspect us because no one would think two people like us would be crazy enough to do something like this." Jeffrey sneaks into Dorothy's apartment while she is out performing at the Slow Club, but when Dorothy returns Jeffrey is still in her apartment and he has to hide in her closet. When he makes a noise, Dorothy discovers him and forced Jeffrey out of the closet at knifepoint. Dorothy forces him to strip and begins to fondle him but, then, there is a loud knock at the door and Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) enters. Jeffrey, hiding in the closet once again, witnesses Dorothy being brutalized and raped by Frank. He discovers that Frank has kidnapped her husband and little boy and has made Dorothy into his sexual slave, forcing her to do his bidding so her family won't be harmed. Jeffrey follows Frank and his cohorts, discovering that Frank is involved with a man in a yellow jacket, who, Jeffrey later finds to be a member of the Lumberton police department. Jeffrey also comes to visit Dorothy once again and they make love. But when Jeffrey leaves Dorothy's apartment, Frank and his men meet Jeffrey in the hallway. Against his will, Jeffrey is forced to go on "a joy ride" with Frank, Dorothy, and Frank's henchman, and Jeffrey is submerged into the dank, nightmare world of Lumberton.