The story is set in mid-19th century in Siam, during the King Mongkut Era and at the height of the Rattanakosin Dynasty, when Siam was plagued with wars with its neighbouring kingdoms.
Mak (Mario Maurer) was drafted to serve in a war against the foreign invasion, forcing him to leave behind his pregnant wife Nak (Davika Hoorne) at the town of Phra Khanong, not far from Central Bangkok. He was wounded during a battle and sent to a medical camp, where he met
Ter, Puak, Shin and Aey, who later became his best friends.
Meanwhile,
in Phra Khanong, Nak struggled alone painfully to give birth to the
baby. Shortly after, villagers in the neighborhood heard her singing
lullabies to her baby, causing hair-raising chills and making them cower
in fear. Rumours started circulating around the village that Nak had
already died in labor and was now a ghost haunting the house.
After the war, Mak, accompanied by his four friends, returned to his
home in Phra Khanong. Mak happily reunites with Nak and their son; he
then invited his friends to stay in his aunt's house nearby. The next
day, the five went to the local market to find jobs and buy food, but
the vendors fled from Mak due to the rumor about his wife.
At a liquor
store, the owner tried to tell Mak about the rumor, only to be stopped
by her nephew. One night, Shin (Wiwat Kongrasri), while trying to fetch
Mak to join them drinking liquor, lost his nerve at the sight of Nak,
the cradle swinging by itself, and what he believed to be her arm
stretching to pick up a lime she dropped off the porch; however, his
friend did not take his words seriously. None of them notice the liquor
store's owner drowned body floating nearby.
The next day, Ter (Nuttapong
Chartpong), saw a corpse wearing a distinctive looking wedding ring in
the backyard, and the same one on Nak's finger. The remaining two
friends started to believe Shin and Ter, but none of them actually tried
bending over and looking at Nak between their legs to confirm that she
is a ghost (which is an advice shared by Shin). What ensued is their
desperate and comical attempts to get the message to Mak without
alerting Nak, and Nak's "dinner" made of dry leaves and live worms that
Mak enthusiastically encouraged their friends to try.
After the four
flat out said Nak is dead, Mak became angry with them for letting the
rumor get the better of them, and told them to leave. Unwilling to leave
their friend behind, the four conspired to "free" Mak from his wife.
Mak and Nak, who wore a mask to avoid alerting the villagers, go the
village carnival. On the ferris-wheel, Nak asked her husband if he was
afraid of ghosts, and Mak assures her that he was more afraid of living
without her. The couple then entered the haunted house; there, Mak's
friends abducted him, but unable to open the locked door to carry him
out. They briefly managed to conceal themselves from Nak by disguising
themselves as the haunted house's fake ghosts, then busted the wall and
ran into the woods when she saw them.
Seeing Mak's suddenly bleeding
chest wound, his distinctive wedding ring, and how he screamed when hit
by a handful of holy rice, the four friends were convinced that he was a
ghost and scrambled back to the house to rescue Nak. Putting her and
the baby on back of boat, the four desperately rowed, only to find Mak
at the river bank. He tried to get to the boat and nearly drowned,
convincing the four that he is alive, as ghosts don't drown.
Mak
explained to his friends that his reaction when thrown at by holy rice
was because some grains lodged in his wound, which wasn't completely
healed and was busted open by all the commotion. With six people on
board, the boat started sinking, prompting everyone to throw their
luggage away, even the paddles. Ter, who sat frontmost on the boat,
wondered out loud who the ghost might be, and Aey, who sat behind him,
dropped a ring that looked exactly like the one on the corpse, and was
kicked off-board by the panicking Ter.
After ineffectively rowing with
their hands, Ter was handed the dropped paddle by Nak, and looked back
at the other paddle, which had floated so far away it was impossible for
a human arm to reach. He then stood straight up, bent over and looked
between his legs and finally confirmed that Nak is, indeed, a ghost.
Mak and his three remaining friends, Shin, Puak and Ter, went to a
Buddhist temple seeking chants and prayers to keep Nak at bay. However,
in a panic, coupled with Mak's struggle to get back to his wife, they
spilled all the holy water, holy rice and kicked the praying monk out of
the "safety ring". The monk fled the temple, leaving the four to face
the angry Nak. A pale Aey found his way to the temple and it was
revealed that he was still a human.
Ter, Mak and Shin push him forward
then Puak and Aey kiss. Ter thought Aey is a ghost because he is have a
ring (and stole the ring off the corpse to pay off his gambling debt).
Nak angrily shouted at the five that she just wanted to be with her
loved one, which the four friends argued against since they didn't
believe the living can be with the dead.
Mak then revealed he knew the
truth about Nak all along, after listening to his friends, looking at
Nak between his legs and finding her half buried corpse. He then claimed
that he is more afraid of living without her than of her ghostly form.
His friends, seeing them reuniting, cried and hugged each other, vowing
that they wouldn't leave each other even if one of them became a ghost.
In the credit scenes, Mak, his wife and his four friends lived
happily in the village. Nak uses her ghostly abilities to do chores,
play charades, help fixing the temple, and scare off the villagers
attempting to drive her away. It is also revealed that her child also
possess some of her abilities.
