1.1 First You Dream, Then You Die

Norman wakes up from bed and begins to search the house, He finds his father dead under a shelf. Quickly, Norman calls his mother and she holds him in her arms as he cries tears of grief. Six months later, Norma buys a motel in a small town and the two move to their new home. After moving in, Norman meets Bradley Martin and her friends. Bradley introduces herself and tells Norman that she will help him if he ever has any questions. Meanwhile, Norma receives a call from Norman's brother who is angry that Norma had moved without informing him of their decision. At school, Norman's advisor asks him to join the track team so that he can integrate himself into the community. When he gives the permission slip to join the team to his mother, Norma becomes frustrated that Norman had not thought about how she would need helping setting up the motel.

The next day, Keith Summers, the former owner of the motel, approaches Norman from the front of the house. After brief chat, Keith makes it obvious that he has done research on the family. Nervous, Norman calls for his mother and she confronts the man. With anger, Keith tells Norma that the motel had belonged to his family for generations and that she has no right to own the it. Outraged, Norma declares that now owns the property after buying it from a bank foreclosure and she orders him off her property. At night, Bradley comes to Norman's home to invite him to study at library. Though Norman does want to study with Bradley, his mother wants him to stay at home. Then after having an argument with his mother, Norman sneaks out of the house. When he meets up with Bradley, she is amused that Norman actually thought that they were really going to study at the library and they go to a party instead. At the party, Norman soon finds himself alone with a bottle of beer. Then Bradley decides to have a chat with him. Norman accidentally begins flirting with Bradley and she confesses that there is a certain quality about him that she finds special about him.

At Norma's home, Keith invades the home by breaking through the door. He attack Norma and sexually assaults her. Suddenly, Norman arrives home and clocks Keith with a clothes iron. Afterward, the two quickly restrain Keith and Norman runs out of the room to find medical supplies to wrap round Norma's wounds. While Norman is out of the room, Keith wakes up and provokes Norma with an insult. Norma then takes a kitchen knife and begins stabbing Keith for his remark. When Norman returns, Norma decides that they should hide the bodies because the people would not want to stay at a motel where they an incident of rape and death had happened. Together, Norman and his mother stash the body in the bath in one of the rooms. While they are carrying the body, blood from the body seeps into the carpet and the two are forced to change all the carpet to keep the death of Keith a secret. As Norman pulls up the carpet, he finds a small book containing pictures of women tied up. Then he hears something outside and he goes to check the window. Outside, two sheriffs visit the motel because they did not know that someone had moved into it.

Later, Norman and Norma decide to dump the body in a lake. As they sit in the boat in the middle of the lake, Norma confesses that she made a mistake when she bought the motel since the town plans to move the interstate highway away from the motel, meaning that no one will visit the motel. Norma laments that she has not provided a good life for Norman. Norman consoles his mother and tells her that she means everything to him. Then they dump the body together. The next day, Norma shows Norman the new motel sign. She then tells him that the town has not decided to move the bypass, and she will think of something if they were to move it. In a dimly room lite room somewhere else, the final scene depicts a girl being given an injection like picture in the book Norman had found.