An old acquaintance asks Scottie to follow his wife Madeleine ( Kim Novak) as she'd been acting strangely and that her mental state seemed to be on the decline.
A San Francisco detective, Scottie Ferguson (Stewart), retires after a rooftop chase gone wrong where a fellow police officer fell to his death. In the aftermath, Scottie develops a fear of heights as well as vertigo. His ex-fiancée Marjorie suggests that severe emotional shock could be the sole cure. An old acquaintance asks Scottie to follow his wife Madeleine ( Kim Novak) as she'd been acting strangely and that her mental state seemed to be on the decline. Scottie eventually realizes that all is not what it seems with Madeleine.