In a Los Angeles department store, unorthodox therapist David Korvo watches as Ann Sutton, wife of famous psychoanalyst Dr. Bill Sutton, is stopped for shoplifting. After convincing the manager that arresting her would mean a scandal for the store, he arranges to meet her the next day. Although Ann assumes that Korvo is a blackmailer, he gives her the store records to destroy, and invites her to a party a few days later. There, Korvo informs her that he can tell that she is a kleptomaniac, and is tired and hurt by emotional pressures. When Ann admits that she cannot sleep, Korvo assures her that he can help and then hypnotizes her without her knowledge. A patient of Bill's, Theresa Randolph, sees them together and moments later warns Ann that Korvo must be after her money, to which Ann responds angrily. After a deep night's sleep, she gratefully accepts an appointment with Korvo, but insists they meet in his building's bar instead of his apartment. In the bar, Ann agrees to see Korvo professionally, and then leaves to call Theresa to apologize. Her absense gives him enough time to steal her glass and scarf, then break his own glass and ask the waiter to clean it up. A few nights later, Ann, under a hypnotic spell, retrieves the recordings of Theresa's therapy sessions with Bill and hides them in Theresa's house. While entering the house, she trips an alarm, then sits calmly next to Theresa's body, which has been strangled with Ann's scarf. Ann is arrested, and when she cannot tell Lieutenant James Colton what she did that night, he assumes that she is in love with Korvo and killed Theresa out of jealousy. Bill arrives at the station and does not believe Ann's pleas of innocence, as he has learned that the police have found a glass supposedly left by Ann in Korvo's apartment, and that Ann is alleged to have argued with both Korvo and Theresa. Bill then remembers a therapy session during which Theresa claimed that Korvo stole her daughter's inheritance and that she had threatened to expose him. Bill suspects Korvo may have killed Theresa because of the accusation, but Colton soon discovers that Korvo is recuperating from surgery that was done on the day of the murder. After Bill offers to play the recordings of Theresa's sessions, he finds them missing. Bill, his lawyer and Colton then question Ann again, but Bill thinks she is lying and leaves, after which she confesses to being a kleptomaniac. Bill learns about her revelation and immediately runs to Colton to tell him that he believes Ann was hypnotized into stealing the records and that Korvo then hypnotized himself to rise immediately after surgery to kill Theresa. Colton does not agree but, sympathetic because of the recent loss of his own wife, consents to take Ann back to Theresa's house to jog her memory. Meanwhile, Korvo, hearing that the police believe the records will pinpoint the murderer, hypnotizes himself so that he can go to Theresa's without pain and destroy the recordings. There, he hears Colton, Bill and Ann enter, and hides while Bill assures Ann that she can trust him to heal her. As Ann regains her memory, Korvo desperately holds them at gunpoint and plays the records while making his way to the door. Before he can escape, Korvo dies from internal bleeding, and Colton calls for an ambulance as Ann and Bill embrace.