Manhattan psychiatrist Dr. Sam Rice (Roy Scheider) is visited by glamorous, enigmatic Brooke Reynolds (Meryl Streep), who works at Crispin'sâa fictitious New York auction house modeled after Christie's. Brooke was having an affair with one of Rice's patients, George Bynum (Josef Sommer), who has just been murdered. Brooke asks the doctor to return a watch to Bynum's wife and not reveal the affair.
Rice is visited by NYPD Detective Vitucci (Joe Grifasi) but refuses to give any information on Bynum, a patient for two years. After the police warn him that he could become a target because the killer may believe he knows something, Rice reviews the case files detailing Bynum's affairs with various women at Crispin's, including Brooke. Bynum had also expressed concern, claiming a wealthy friend had once killed someone, and Bynum was the only person who knew about this. He wondered if this friend might kill again.
The police believe Bynum's killer is a woman. Rice gradually falls for Brooke but believes he is being followed. He is mugged by someone who takes his coat, whereupon the mugger is killed in the same manner as Bynum.
Rice tries to interpret clues from the case file with his psychiatrist mother, Grace (Jessica Tandy), including a strange dream of Bynum's in which he finds a green box in a cabinet in a dark house and is then chased up a narrow staircase by a little girl carrying a bleeding teddy bear.
Brooke's behavior becomes increasingly suspicious. Rice tails her to a family estate on Long Island. She explains her guilt in the accidental death of her father, and claims Bynum threatened to reveal this secret if she broke off their affair.
Rice pieces together that Bynum's previous girlfriend was Gail Phillips (Sara Botsford)âan assistant to Bynum at Crispin's. Gail blames Brooke for her breakup with Bynum. Gail is trying to frame Brooke and she has killed Vitucci. Now she arrives at the estate to kill Brooke and Rice.
As they are about to leave, Brooke forgets her keys and goes back into the dark house, alone, to retrieve them, while Rice waits in his car. Gail appears in the back seat of the car and stabs Rice with a knife. Gail then chases Brooke through the house, recapitulating Bynum's dream. Brooke narrowly escapes, as Gail falls to her death over a railing. Rice is not seriously hurt and is embraced by Brooke.
who  reviews the case files detailing Bynum's affairs with various women at Crispin's?
rice