Dr. Elara Voss (Emma Stone), a biologist disillusioned with sterile laboratories and corrupt institutions,

 In a near-future world where humanity teeters on the brink of ecological collapse, scientists discover an ancient ritual preserved in fragments of myth and agricultural lore. It is said that when a herd of oxen dies, bees can be born from their decaying flesh—a miracle known as bugonia, life springing from death.

Dr. Elara Voss (Emma Stone), a biologist disillusioned with sterile laboratories and corrupt institutions, becomes obsessed with proving that this myth holds a forgotten truth—one that could save the dying ecosystems of Earth. She discovers a hidden colony of organisms that defy the laws of biology: luminous, insect-like beings that thrive not on sunlight or plants, but on human memory and emotion.

When a mysterious drifter named Jonah (Jesse Plemons) stumbles into her field site, carrying with him strange scars and fragments of dreams not his own, Elara realizes he may have already been touched by the creatures. The two form a fragile partnership—equal parts devotion and suspicion—as they descend deeper into the insect world.

But the more they uncover, the more unstable reality becomes. Memories blur. Identities shift. The insects seep into their minds, whispering of a new order: a world in which humanity dissolves and something else, something collective and inhuman, is born.

As Elara feels her own self erode—her voice echoing with others’, her skin humming like a hive—she must decide: resist and cling to the last remnants of humanity, or embrace the bugonia and become part of something vast, terrifying, and eternal.

The final choice isn’t whether to survive—
but whether to remain human at all.