A troubled young man retreats from the big city and his ex-wife for the tranquility of a small town. He is drawn into a relationship with a young woman whose boyfriend goes missing, leaving the new arrival as a suspect.
A young woman becomes inexplicably attracted to a man who is stalking her. When her boyfriend goes missing, the stalker is the immediate suspect, until a game of jealousy and betrayal turns deadly.—Anonymous
Robert Forrester, an aeronautics designer, has just moved to a small town from New York City to escape the problems in his life, including the dissolution of his marriage initiated by his soon to be ex-wife Nickie Grace, their relationship seemingly becoming even more bitingly toxic as the proceedings progress, a diagnosed bout of depression, and self-esteem issues which has led to socialization problems, all these problems of which he is self-aware. In an isolated part of town at night, he becomes obsessed with secretly staring at the mundane activities of a young woman as she works in her brightly lit kitchen, it not so much her with who he is obsessed, but rather the quiet happiness she seems to exude in her life and relationship, something that he never really had with Nickie. As she, bank employee Jenny Thierolf, catches him in her yard on one of those viewing nights, she becomes intrigued by his presence, which she believes is fate as some sort of harbinger in her life. This act of her literally inviting him in for tea begins a mutually obsessive relationship between the two, one fraught with problems as their individual obsession with the other is coming from different places for each of them and what they need out of the other in that regard. Also problematic is the reaction of Jenny's friends, especially her boyfriend, Greg Wyncoop, who becomes violently jealous of Robert, while Robert in turn initially only saw in Greg the source of Jenny's peace. So when Greg goes missing after his and Robert's latest violent altercation, Robert is placed at the top of the suspect list of whatever may have happened to Greg, which may be murder.—Huggo
Aeronautical designer Robert has retreated to living outside of the big city at the end of his divorce proceedings from his nasty, mean-spirited artist wife, which came after a severe bout with depression. He has taken to lurking in the dark woods at night to watch the seemingly quaint Jenny in her kitchen washing dishes by her curtainless window. Robert is askew and awkward, both at work and in social situations. His wife baits him with malevolent teasing during their divorce meetings.
One night Jenny spots him as she burns some stuff in her yard. Through awkward and stilted conversation, she invites him inside, relating to his statement that he has been depressed. She tells him of her belief that sometimes little things - signs - are indications that things are meant to be, or that death is on its way.
Jenny shows up at his place of work and, after a dinner together, she continues to oddly appear throughout his days and frequently, oppresively, calls him continuously. Meanwhile he continues treading through the alienation and strangeness of the people around him. He is patient with her until she declares her love for him and tells him that she broke up with her boyfriend, clearly to be with him. He receives a big promotion at work and tries desperatley to get rid of her only to allow her into his house and his bed. Her ex-boyfriend Greg assaults him, her friends are suspicious of him.
One night as he drives home Greg careens him off the road and they get into a fight that tumbles down an embankment to the river. Greg falls into the water and Richard pulls him out, leaving him coughing as he gets the hell away. Police visit him and Jenny, who seems to be living with him, as Greg is now a missing person. Richard asserts his innocence, saying that there was no way he could've fallen back into the river.
The story moves on from there with more brutality, Greg reappearing, an unexpected act of kindness from a reticent elderly neighbor that ends in tragedy, and twists and turns typical of a Patricia Highsmith story that further ensnares the endlessly confounded Richard in an irreparable web of deceit, forlorness and irrationality, ending with a reslove that fate lets no one escape unscathed and, as his ex-wife declared to Jenny, the fact that some people in your life inevitably bring nothing but poison.
