In a Massachusetts town, newlyweds Andy and Tracy Safian are having sex when they notice the young boy next door at his window, seemingly watching them. Andy is an associate dean at a women's college. When a student on campus is wounded by a serial rapist, Dr. Jed Hill, a newly arrived surgeon at the local hospital, operates and saves her life. Meeting Jed, Andy realizes that they attended high school together. Money is tight, so Andy invites Jed, who is looking for an apartment, to rent the third floor of their Victorian home to finance new plumbing. Andy finds the body of one of his students, murdered by the rapist. Interviewing Andy as a possible suspect, Police detective Dana Harris requests a semen sample. While leaving the station, Andy learns that Tracy was hospitalized for severe abdominal pain and Jed is operating on her. While removing one of her ovaries, ruptured due to a
cyst, Jed discovers Tracy is pregnant, but the surgery causes the fetus to abort. Another doctor notices that Tracy's other ovary is
torsed and appears
necrotic. Jed advises Andy to agree to the removal of Tracy's second ovary, rather than risk her life. Andy painfully agrees, since Tracy will become infertile. Overruling the protests of other doctors that the other ovary might still be healthy, Jed removes it. After the surgery, the removed ovary is found to be healthy. Blaming Andy for giving his consent, Tracy leaves him and sues Jed for malpractice. During a
deposition in which Jed is accused of having a
God complex, he declares himself above reproach as a surgeon, asserting "I am God" before storming out. Tracy's lawyer reveals that Jed was drinking the night of the operation. Fearful of negative publicity from a civil trial, the hospital and Jed's insurance company
settle with Tracy for $20 million. Andy discovers that the rapist is Earl, a handyman at the college. After a struggle, Andy subdues Earl, who is arrested. In the aftermath, Dana informs Andy that his semen sample indicates he is sterile, thus he was not the father of Tracy's aborted child. When Andy accuses Tracy's lawyer, Dennis Riley, of having impregnated Tracy, Riley asserts his innocence but refuses to break
attorney–client privilege. Riley suggests, however, that Tracy's mother—who supposedly died 12 years previously—can answer his questions, advising Andy to take a bottle of
Scotch to her. Andy tracks down Tracy's mother, a resentful alcoholic who reveals Tracy as a lifelong con artist. Previously, Tracy had an affair with a wealthy man, who paid for her to have an abortion. Tracy began her career as a con woman by keeping the money and having the abortion at a clinic. Tracy next took up with a "Dr. Lilienfield". Following up these leads, Andy learns that "Lilienfield" is Jed. Jed and Tracy set Andy up so Jed could move into the house, injecting her with
pergonal, which causes ovarian cysts upon overdose. Confronting Tracy, Andy demands half the settlement money. Pointedly, he tells her that his will directs the police to their 10-year-old next-door neighbor as a witness to her and Jed's crimes. Tracy asks Jed to murder the boy, but Jed refuses, telling Tracy to give Andy what he wants so they can leave the country. During a quarrel, Jed blames Tracy's greed for exposing Andy's infertility by getting pregnant to increase the settlement, and Tracy murders Jed. She then slips into the neighbor's house and attempts to suffocate the boy, only to find a dummy in his place. Enraged, Tracy attacks Andy after he walks in on her. Struggling, they fall down a stair landing from the second floor, but survive. Detective Harris appears and arrests Tracy, revealing a sting operation to catch her in the act of attempted murder. As Tracy is led away in handcuffs, the boy and his mother return home, and Tracy notices that he is blind. ==Cast==