In 2020, 40 years after the events of Cujo, one of its main characters, 72-year-old widower Vic Trenton, temporarily moves into his friend Greg Ackerman’s lavish home on Rattlesnake Key on Florida’s Gulf Coast. While walking, he meets his neighbor, Allie Bell, a widow who pushes around a pram containing matching pairs of shorts and shirts that read “BAD” and “BADDER” and acts as if her twin sons, Jacob and Joseph, are in the pram. Greg described Allie as “crazy,” but Vic plays along, acknowledging the boys as if they are there.

Rattlesnake Key is named for its infestation of rattlesnakes, which the local community started controlling only after the Bell twins died. It’s the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, and most residents are out of town; Allie is Vic’s only neighbor. As Vic told Greg, Allie’s behavior doesn’t bother him because he and his late wife, Donna, had similar experiences after their son, Tad, died. Vic came to Rattlesnake Key as a response to his grief over Donna’s recent death. In light of losing his own family, Vic understands how Allie feels. Later that night, however, he starts to hear the squeaking of her pram, which frightens him.