John Ferguson was traumatized by a police case where he almost fell off a building, and another officer did fall. He now has fear of heights and vertigo which forced him to retire early from the police force. A friend, Galvin Elster (Tom Helmore) contacts him out of the blue, and hires him to follow his wife (Kim Novak), who he says may be possessed by an ancestor. Ferguson follows her, and saves her from an aparent suicide attempt when she throws herself into San Francisco Bay. They soon become an item. They travel to San Juan Bautista south of San Francisco. They kiss and profess their love when she runs off. It appears that the wife commits suicide by going into the mission and up the bell tower, throwing herself off. (There actually is no bell tower at San Juan Bautista. It was added cinematically.)
Ferguson goes into a melancholy depression, and ends up in a psychiatric hospital for about a year. After he is out he discovers a woman who looks like the diseased wife. He dresses her up as the deceased wife, but she wears a familiar necklace and then he realizes he was duped as part of a murder plot with him as the witness it was a suicide, not a murder.
This is a very good movie, and very good portrayal by Jimmy Stewart. Ferguson has an admirer, Marjorie (Barbara Bel Geddes) who is always available for him but they never make the connection.
