Private investigator Roy Markham (Ray Milland) helps a woman, Nancy Booth (uncredited), once a famous actress, test her husband's faith in her by allowing her to use his engraved lighter and a handwritten letter from him. She leaves them in her penthouse and purse respectively, and her husband, a famous sculptor named Philip Booth (Robert H. Harris), finds them and kills her in a jealous rage. Booth then invites Markham over for dinner, and they play cat and mouse during cocktails, all of which culminates in Markham's discovering Nancy's dead body. The viewer then learns that Markham anticipated a confrontation with Booth, but never Nancy Booth's death. Markham had been in love with her for years, and when she came to him for help with her husband, he thought triggering a confrontation among all three parties would enable the Booths to disperse the jealousy and suspicion in their marriage. Booth has every intention of killing Markham, but Markham escapes. By maliakapalena.