In New York City, Angela “Angie” Anderson buys a pair of fabric scissors, and enters a thrift store to buy an antique doll, which she intends to repair and resell. Upon returning to her apartment, Angie is attacked in the elevator by a man with a red beard. She wounds him with the scissors, which he confiscates, along with her purse. Television actor Alex Morgan discovers Angie in the elevator and takes her to his apartment, which he shares with his wheelchair-bound brother, Cole. After Angie is questioned by police, Alex walks her home, where she reveals that she recently moved to the city from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and spends much of her time repairing dolls. The next day, during hypnotherapy at the office of Dr. Stephan Carter, Angie calls out the name, “Billy.” However, when Angie regains consciousness, she denies knowing anyone by that name. Dr. Carter believes Angie is repressing a childhood trauma, which explains her virginity at age twenty-six. While leaving the office, Angie passes the doctor’s wife, congressional candidate Ann Carter, who appears to have little time for her husband. Shortly after Angie returns home, Alex invites her to his cocktail party, where she is introduced to Nancy Leahy, his former lover. Cole, an artist, shows Angie his paintings, all of which depict nude, faceless women. When Cole unveils his latest work, the image of a bearded man raping a woman holding a doll, he admits to spying on Angie for months, and intends to have sex with her, as he has with all the women who inspired his paintings. As Angie runs from the room, she is horrified by the sight of a red-bearded man. Alex assures her that the man is a fellow actor, and apologizes for Cole’s behavior. He also claims responsibility for his brother Cole’s condition, the result of an automobile wreck while he was driving. Alex attempts to kiss Angie, but she is afraid to be touched by a man. At Angie’s next psychotherapy session, she acknowledges a red-bearded man, named Billy, in her past. She also expresses her attraction to Dr. Carter, secure in the fact that he is a faithful husband. The session is interrupted when Ann telephones Dr. Carter to say that she will be out of town for the next three days. Afterward, Angie wanders into a movie theater and is threatened by a bearded man wielding a pair of scissors. She returns home and telephones Dr. Carter, who suggests that her panic over the attempted rape is “attracting these encounters.” Angie meets Alex in the hallway and invites him into her bedroom. As Nancy Leahy and Cole Morgan spy on the couple, she warns that a romance between Alex and Angie may ultimately create a rift between the brothers. Meanwhile, Angie is haunted by a childhood memory and abandons her attempt to make love to Alex. Undaunted, Alex invites her to join him for dinner the next evening. She steps onto her balcony and sees Cole through a window, walking about the room. Realizing his secret has been revealed, Cole threatens Angie and she locks herself inside. Moments later, she receives a telephone call from her employment agency and accepts a temporary job with real estate developer Richard Bailey. The following day, Angie enters Bailey’s office-apartment, and finds a note on the door, saying he will return shortly. She is given an automated presentation describing Bailey’s soundproofing process, and a lighting system designed to affect the occupant’s moods. After several minutes, Angie decides to leave, but discovers she is locked inside. Realizing the telephone is not functional, Angie searches for an exit, and finds Richard Bailey in the bedroom, wearing a red beard, and stabbed to death with her fabric scissors. She tries in vain to break the plastic windows, hoping to alert people on the street below. When Alex arrives at Angie’s door for their date, he hears the cries of her cat, Midnight, and suspects his neighbor may be in trouble. At the Bailey building, a talking doll instructs Angie to “look for the bird.” She discovers a caged raven in the bedroom, and becomes dismayed as it repeats the phrase “you killed him.” Telegrams, purportedly from Angie, are delivered to the employment agency and Alex, claiming she has left town for several days. Alex becomes increasingly suspicious, while Cole attributes Angie’s disappearance to her mental illness. Angie continues her quest for freedom, writing the word “help” on the window in lipstick, and releasing the raven through a ceiling vent with a note attached to its leg. Unable to get assistance from the building manager, Alex risks his life breaking into Angie’s apartment from the balcony. After feeding Midnight, Alex aquires the address of the Bailey building by rubbing a pencil over the latent writing on Angie’s note pad. Cole accosts Alex at the door and rises from his wheelchair, expressing his resentment toward his brother and their mother. At the Bailey building, Angie discovers a triple-screen television monitor, displaying segments of Alex’s show, and surveillance video from the thrift store, the employment agency, Dr. Carter’s office, and herself screaming for help from the window. In the kitchen, she finds Richard Bailey’s corpse sitting at the table, with the dead raven on a plate. Angie suddenly recalls witnessing the murder of her stepfather, Billy, by her mother, who stabbed him with a pair of scissors. Later, Ann Carter enters in search of her lover, Richard Bailey, and finds her husband, wearing a red beard. Dr. Carter reveals that he knew of the affair and killed Bailey. Aware that a scandal would jeopardize her political career, Ann agrees to comply with her husband’s plan to blame Angie for the murder. As Angie wanders through the rooms in a psychotic stupor, Dr. Carter explains how he was able to manipulate his patient by forcing her to relive her childhood traumas, including her rape by Billy. While the doctor and his wife search for the missing murder weapon, Angie walks through the open door and locks the Carters inside. Alex arrives by taxicab and offers to take her home. Angie gets into the taxicab and stares up at Dr. Carter as he pounds on the window, screaming for help.