In the isolated Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, which shutters for the winter months each year, Jack Torrance accepts a position as caretaker. Stuart Ullman, the hotel's manager, informs Torrance shortly after his arrival that Charles Grady, a prior caretaker, killed his wife, two young girls, and himself in the hotel.
Danny, Jack's son, has an imaginary friend named Tony who lives in his mouth, according to his mom and Danny. Danny asks Tony why he doesn't like to visit that hotel. Danny had a seizure and premonition in Boulder. Initially, Tony refuses to say anything, but then he sees a vision of blood flowing in the river and two young girls standing. He becomes conscious, but he is not able to remember anything. Wendy, Jack's wife, recounts to the physician an earlier event in which Jack accidentally dislocated Danny's shoulder when furious from alcohol. Since then, Jack has remained sober. Wendy also shares that Danny started talking with his imaginary friend Tony when he was in the nursery.
Jack, Wendy, and Danny visit the hotel for the first time with the assistance of the hotel manager, Stuart Ullman. Danny discovered a playroom and was playing alone. Suddenly, he notices the same two girls standing behind him. Then they meet Dick Hallorann, the head chef at the Overlook, who tells Danny they both have telepathic abilities. Dick calls it “shining” before he departs for the holiday break. When Dick inquires about it, Danny declines to address it because Tony had previously suggested he not. Danny also says that Tony, a little boy, lives in his mouth, and when he is asleep, Tony demonstrates impending events. When Danny asks about room no. 237, Dick advises Danny to stay away from it since the hotel has a "shine" emanating from sad memories of the past.
When Danny was playing around, he stopped near room 237 and tried to open it, which he couldn’t. Jack's mental state deteriorates in the interim; he writes ineffectively and regularly explodes with violence. After a month, Danny begins to experience terrifying visions, including those of two identically dressed, slain sisters. When Danny was playing alone, he received a ball coming towards him from room 237. He sees that the room is open, and unseen powers draw Danny to room 237. On the other side, Jack screams out of his nightmare about killing his family. Danny returns with body bruising, and Wendy thinks that Jack did it to him out of his physical stress.
Jack then enters the hotel's gold room and strikes up a discussion there with the spectral barman Lloyd, who tempts Jack to pick up drinking again. Jack receives a call from Wendy informing him that a woman is in one of the hotel's rooms and that, as Danny claimed, she attempted to strangle him. Meanwhile, Dick sees something in his telepathy abilities. When Jack investigates, he finds a female ghost in the space. Jack exits the room with fear and meets Wendy as if nothing had happened. He also accuses Danny of inflicting the marks on himself. When Wendy suggests checking out the hotel, Jack becomes irate.
Delbert Grady and other spectral characters then materialize in the Gold Room. Grady tells Jack that Danny has telepathically reached out to Dick Hallorann for aid and that Jack needs to "correct" his wife and child. Dick tries to connect them via phone call, but he can’t. Tony keeps on repeating the word redrum. Danny is absent, unable to wake up, and gone, according to Tony, when Wendy calls for him. Jack destroys the hotel's two-way radio. On the other side, Dick takes a flight and heads to the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. He finds the snowstorm heavy but still manages to travel to the hotel.
Wendy takes a baseball bat and checks the hotel for Jack. Wendy finds Jack's manuscript, in which all the repeats of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" can be found. Suddenly, Jack interrupts and threatens her life. Wendy beats Jack with a baseball bat and locks him in the kitchen pantry. Wendy and Danny couldn’t leave the hotel because Jack had destroyed their Snowcat. Grady's ghost frees Jack out of the kitchen. Danny keeps repeating "redrum" in their hotel room, even writing it in lipstick on the bathroom door. When Wendy looks into the mirror and sees the word, she realizes it is "murder" spelled backward.
Jack then pursues Wendy and Danny with an axe. Danny runs outside through the bathroom window with the help of Wendy, and she uses a knife to fend off Jack when he attempts to burst through the door. Hallorann arrives at the hotel in a different snowcat after flying back to Colorado from his vacation in Florida in response to Danny's telepathic SOS. When Jack becomes distracted by his presence, he ambushes Dick in the lobby and kills him before chasing him through the hedge labyrinth. When Wendy goes around the hotel searching for Danny, she comes across ghosts and sees a vision of blood cascading.
Danny leads Jack astray in the hedge maze and hides behind a snowdrift while Jack takes the wrong path. Danny and Wendy reunite and depart aboard Hallorann's snowcat, and Jack is left to freeze to death in the maze. On July 4, 1921, Jack was depicted standing among a group of partygoers in a picture displayed in the hotel corridor.
