Romance author Paul Sheldon longs to be rid of Misery, his plucky heroine of seven novels.  She has delivered him fame and fortune and recognition beyond the average writer's dreams, but she is also interminably linked to him.  Determined to escape an eternal role as pulp novelist, he kills her off in the eighth novel and heads to his New England cabin to work on his own Great American Novel.   Upon completion, Sheldon excitedly sets out for his New York City publisher in the midst of a raging blizzard and within minutes veers into a desolate snowbank.  From the brink of death, he is rescued from the snow by Annie Wilkes, who just so happens to be Misery's self-professed biggest fan. 

At first, she nurses him back to health in her remote cabin, telling him the roads and phones are damaged by the storm, fawning over his literary accomplishments.  However, things change when she purchases his eighth Misery book and reaches the point of Misery's death.  Annie's psychotic underbelly swiftly surfaces as the unfortunate author is held clandestinely captive in her home.