In flashback from a ‘Rebecca’-style beginning: Ellen Foster, visiting her aunt on the California coast, meets neighbor Jeff Cohalan and his ultramodern clifftop house. Ellen is strongly attracted to Jeff, who’s being plagued by unexplainable accidents, major and minor. Bad luck, persecution…or paranoia? Warned that Jeff could be dangerous, Ellen fears that he’s in danger, as the menacing atmosphere darkens.

For the ventriloquist Gabbo his wooden dummy Otto is the only means of expression. When he starts relying more and more on Otto, he starts going mad.