Millie Calloway

Millie needs work to stay on parole, and hardly anyone hires a woman with a homicide conviction. Nina Winchester hires her anyway. Her room is in the attic, with a sealed window and a door that locks from the outside.

The job turns into a nightmare. Nina keeps changing her mind, accuses Millie of things she didn't do and even reports stolen the car she lent her. Cece, the daughter, treats the maid with contempt. Andrew, the husband, is the only kind person in the house. Millie keeps quiet, because one wrong step could send her back to prison.

Nina buys tickets to a Broadway show, then claims she never did. Andrew ends up going with Millie. The night ends at a hotel, and they start an affair. Nina finds out and threatens Millie, but Andrew takes the maid's side.

For a while, Millie thinks she has found someone who treats her well. That lasts until she breaks a plate from the china Andrew inherited from his mother, the one thing in the house no one is allowed to touch.

The punishment is brutal: Andrew makes Millie cut herself once for every piece of the plate, 21 times. Then he drugs her and locks her in the attic. A letter from Nina explains everything. Andrew had been locking Nina up there for years. Nina hired Millie on purpose, betting her husband would trade her for the maid and that a woman with Millie's past would fight back. She also left a knife within Millie's reach.

Millie fights back. She wounds Andrew, turns the tables and makes him pull out one of his own teeth with pliers.

Nina comes back to free Millie, and Andrew attacks them both. Millie pushes him down the stairs, and the fall kills him. Nina drops a lightbulb nearby so it looks like a household accident. Officer Connors has doubts, but she has her own reasons to close the case that way.

After the funeral, Nina gives Millie a $100,000 check and leaves with Cece. She also refers Millie to a friend, Lisa, who hints that her husband is violent too. Millie asks when she can start.

In Freida McFadden's books, Millie narrates and leads all three novels in the series, plus the novella The Housemaid's Wedding. In the book, she went to prison as a teenager for killing a boy to defend a girl. Sydney Sweeney, who plays Millie in the movie, is also an executive producer and returns in The Housemaid's Secret.