Scotland, Pa. 2002

In the sleepy town of Scotland, Pennsylvania, Norm Duncan’s humble fast-food establishment, Duncan’s, was a hub of activity in 1975. Joe “Mac” McBeth, a loyal employee, had been overlooked for a promotion to manager by Douglas McKenna, who was secretly siphoning funds from the restaurant’s coffers. Meanwhile, three free-spirited hippies, one a self-proclaimed fortune teller, revealed to Mac that they foresaw a bright future in bank drive-thru management for him. Inspired by this unconventional prophecy, Mac and his wife Pat began to play detective, secretly gathering evidence of McKenna’s embezzlement and sharing their findings with Duncan.

Impressed by Mac’s diligence and intuition, Duncan confided in the couple about his plans to transform his struggling burger joint into a drive-through operation. Mac was immediately struck by the potential for profit, and soon found himself at the center of a power struggle when Duncan fell victim to a staged robbery orchestrated by Pat. As the drama unfolded, Mac and Pat attacked Duncan to gain access to the restaurant’s safe, but their scheme was foiled when Duncan momentarily regained consciousness and stumbled into a deep fryer, scalding Pat’s hand in the process.

The authorities, led by Investigator McDuff, were soon on the scene, and in a bizarre twist, a local homeless man, unwittingly implicated in the crime due to his possession of stolen jewelry, became the scapegoat. In the aftermath, Duncan left behind a surprise inheritance – his restaurant – which was bequeathed to his eldest son Malcolm. Mac and Pat seized the opportunity to purchase the business, whereupon they put Mac’s vision into action, transforming Duncan’s into a thriving drive-through operation that quickly became the talk of the town.

Investigator McDuff returns to Scotland, where the enigmatic homeless man’s reputation is finally cleared, and the McBeths redirect their attention towards Malcolm, the unsuspecting pawn in a game of power struggles. As Macbeth’s friend Banko probes into the origins of the drive-thru concept, Mac’s demeanor undergoes a profound shift, veering from introspection to paranoia and withdrawal. On a hunting trip, Mac is momentarily distracted from his dark thoughts by a vivid hallucination of three hippies clad in deer costumes, an eerie prelude to the descent into madness that lies ahead.

Meanwhile, Pat becomes increasingly obsessed with her burn injury, convinced that others are fixated on the repulsive appearance of her hand, despite the fact that no visible scar exists. Macbeth’s grip on reality begins to slip further as he contemplates eliminating Banko, ultimately succumbing to the temptation and committing the cold-blooded murder.

As the news of Banko’s demise spreads, the town is shocked by the gruesome discovery of his body, coinciding with the emergence of celebrity Mac, who holds a press conference amidst whispers of scandal. In a bizarre display of delusion, Mac summons an hallucination of Banko to pose a question at the press conference, sparking a downward spiral into complete madness that unfolds before a mesmerized national television audience.

Desperate for answers, Mac becomes fixated on tracking down the trio of hippies who have haunted his thoughts, while Pat’s grip on reality falters further as she becomes convinced that her hand is literally falling off. In a chilling turn of events, Mac’s mental state deteriorates to the point where he engages in incoherent phone conversations, including one morbid suggestion from the hippies to target McDuff’s family.

In a climactic showdown, Mac seizes the sheriff’s gun and orders an officer to summon McDuff to the restaurant, where he launches a futile attack. The two men engage in a violent struggle on the rooftop, culminating in their simultaneous fall off the edge, with Mac ultimately impaled by the horns of his own car.

As Pat succumbs to her delusions, resorting to self-medication and eventually taking her own life through self-amputation, McDuff seizes the opportunity to fulfill his lifelong dream of working in the food industry, taking over the restaurant with an air of quiet satisfaction.