Glendon Baker is an invalid who is being taken care of by a nurse named Stella Crosson. Stella is pleased when another nurse named Betty Ames arrives to assist her in the work. The only other people in the house are a house keeper named Maude and her handyman husband Sam. Stella becomes worried when she hears that a nurse killer is in the area. She grows more uneasy when the lights go out. When a patient's oxygen begins to run low, Stella sends the handyman out to get some. Growing paranoid, Stella locks all the windows in the house but neglects to lock the one in the basement. Later, Stella sees a man outside and panics when there is knocking at the door. She fails to notice that it is the handyman trying to get back in. She heads for the phone, but stops and heads into the lounge to help Nurse Ames who has been apparently attacked. Once in the lounge, however, Nurse Ames attacks her.

A small town sheriff investigates the disappearance of the wife of a man who has been acting suspiciously according to his nosy neighbors.

The mentally ill Dr. Fenwick is a supporter of the therapeutic value of role-playing in psychiatry. He kills the head of the sanatarium where he is a patient and assumes the man's identity. He locks doctors and nurses in the attic and gives their responsibilities to other patients. Things run rather smoothly until Natalie Rivers, the neice of the now dead head of the sanatarium, arrives for a visit. Since she has never seen her uncle before Fenwick is able to trick her into thinking that he is her uncle. Natalie discovers her real uncle's body and, not knowing who he is, asks Fenwick to call the police. He pretends to call the police and a patient pretending to be a detective shows up to look things over. Eventually Natalie discovers the staff locked in the attic. Fenwick tries to prevent her from telling anyone, but he is stopped by the police.

Verge Likens is a farmer whose father was killed by a crooked politician named Riley McGrath. Verge returns home to avenge his father's death. He manages to get close to Riley by getting hired as an assistant at a barbershop. After asking the barber to run an errand, Verge is alone with Riley and proceeds to lather up the murdering politician for a shave. Verge vividly describes how he is planning to cut Riley's throat. When the barber returns to the barbershop he finds the door locked. He gets the police who break down the door. Inside they find Verge standing over Riley's dead body. Berge has avenged his father's death and he is not guilty of a crime. Riley died of a heart attack.

At a carnival sideshow, a farmer named Charlie Hill buys a strange jar, which brings him notoriety and respect in the community because people travel for miles to gather in his parlor and look at the jar and it's obscure content. But his young wife, Thedy Sue, is frightened of it and insists that he throw it out.

A married man finds his beautiful mistress murdered and flees without reporting the crime and soon becomes the victim of a blackmailer.

Stella is married to a cowardly peach-farmer named Emory and takes in a passing hobo named Jesse. She hires him to help her husband harvest the peach crop. Unfortunately, Jesse's strange behavior and fascination with a knife he carries begins to frightens her. Emory, however, refuses to believe her. Stella tries to run away, but is caught by Jesse. He threatens to stab her, but she fights him off. She escapes in her husbands truck and heads home. There she awaken Emory and tells him about Jesse. Emory, however, confesses that he heard her screams, but was too afraid to do anything. Stella angrily stabs her husband and kills him. She then calls the police and blames the murder on the fleeing Jesse.

Gerald Swiney, a henpecked husband, decides to get rid of his nagging wife, Edith, when she won't agree to a divorce. He intends to drive her away by making her think he's planning to kill her, but things don't go exactly as planned.

Jerry Walsh is a criminal cop killer who is hospitalized after a shootout with the police. He convinces a kind nurse named Ellen Hatch to help him escape. Ellen's true motives come to light when, however, when she leads Jerry to an escape route that leads to a dead end.

In an elaborate con, Ralph Mason marries a rich woman named Nora Cory for her money. Unfortunately his schemes goes awry when he murders one of her sons from a former marriage. As he attempts to make the death look like a suicide, he is caught by Nora as he is writing a fake suicide note. Nora collapses and falls into a paralyzed, yet conscious, state. She is bedridden and worried that her husband will try to kill her. She is also unable to speak and cannot tell anyone about her dangerous husband. When her nurse Jean Dekker allows her husband to adminster her medicine, she grows fearful that he will try to poison her. Fortunately, the nurse figures out a way to communicate with Nora. Nora squeezes her hand in response to yes or no questions. Jean discovers the truth about Ralph, but when Ralph finds out he tries to kill both Nora and Jean . Fortunately, Nora comes out of her paralysis in time to scream. She alerts her second son who manages to subdue Ralph before he can kill again.

A convicted bank robber John Perry is sentenced to 15 years hard labor in a state prison lumber camp. Determined to get out, James befriend an alcoholic inmate named Doc. Doc is in charge of the prison infirmary as well as burials for the dead. Doc makes an offer to John: if John will fincance an operation for Doc's granddaughter, he will get him out of prison. Doc's plan is to hide Perry inside the coffin of the next inmate who dies. The coffin will then be buried and dug up after the gravediggers and guards leave. Perry will then make his escape. All goes according to plan, until Doc fails to dig Perry up. Perry then learns why when the shroud slips from the face of the corpse sharing the coffin with him. Its Doc who died of a heart attack the night before.

James Jarvis is a con man that is posing as a expert in the stock market. Things begin to look good for James when he gets in good with the wealthy Mary Crawford and her friend Agatha. He begins to control all of Mary's money and claims that he lost it all in bad investments. When she hears the news, Mary is shocked and commits suicide. Agatha, however, wants revenge. She conceals any evidence of suicide and invites James over. She gets James's figerprints on the suicide weapon and locks him in the room with Mary's body. She, then, calls the police and tells them that James killed Mary. When James's is killed in a shootout with police, Agatha gets her revenge.

Newlyweds Dave and Bonnie Snowden visit the abandoned home of Bonnie's late father. In the home, Dave finds a locked door and comes to believe that there is something valuable inside. Later, Dave and Bonnie tell Bonnie's elderly mother Mrs. Daniels that they are married. Bonnie's mother is convinced that Dave is after her daughter inheritance. She tries to bribe Dave to annull the marriage. Dave refuses, but he is desperate for money. In an effort to convince Bonnie's mother of his good intentions. He convinces Bonnie to fake a suicide attempt by overdosing on sleeping pills. Dave hopes that Mrs. Daniels will see him caring for her and change her mind about him. Unfortunately, Bonnie is allergic to sleeping pills and accidently dies. After the funeral, Mrs. Daniels tells Dave that she has had a change of heart. She gives him the abandoned house. Dave heads to the home and again wonders what is behind the locked door. As he talks to himself,

Dr. Jane Waterleigh participates in an experiment in projected perception when she takes an experimental drug. She envision a futuristic society run by women. In this society all men have gone extinct because of a genetic accident caused by her associate Dr. Hillyer. After regaining consciousness, Dr. Waterleigh attempts to alter the future by killing Dr. Hillyer before he can progress further in his dangerous experiments. Her efforts prove futile, however, when Dr. Hillyer's son becomes determined to carry out his father's work.

Nell Snyder has been taking care of her orphaned neice and has been growing more and more concerned over her neice's behavior. Her neice continually blames all the trouble she causes on an imaginary friend named Mr. Peppercorn. When the girl's grandfather Captain King Snyder gives her a Creole voodoo doll, Nell grows more and more worried. Her nieces says the doll came from Mr. Peppercorn. She names it Numa and treats as if it were a real person. Eventually, Nell becomes convinced that the doll is real and that it is trying to take her neice's soul. She follows her neice and Numa into the forest. There she frightens her away, not realizing that the switch has already occurred. She later sees the doll and discovers that it bears her neice's face.

Leo Manfred is an ambitious car mechanic who is fixing the limousine of a once famous movie director named Gavin Revere. Leo ingratiates himself to Gavin's daughter Nicky and the two are soon engaged to be married. Gavin is suspicious of Leo. He insists that he take out a life insurance policy naming Nicky as the beneficiary. Leo does so, and the two prepare to gte married. On the eve of the wedding, Leo insults Gavin by panning his famous silent film Death Scene. Gavin threatens to cancel the wedding. Leo responds by planning murder. He manipulates Gavin and Nicky to the edge of a cliff. Nicky, however, turns the tables and tosses Leo over the edge. Nicky removes her make-up and reveas herself to be Gavin's actress wife. She and Gavin manipulated Leo so that the couple could get their hands on his insurance money.

Warren Barrow writes mystery novels under a pseudonymn. He sends his publisher a series of tape recordings that appear to detail either the plot of his next mystery novel or the plan for a murder he is actually going to commit. Using his own name on the tapes, Barrow describes how he renewed a friendship with a very attractive girl named Janet West. Janey, however, is married and wants someone to kill her wealthy husband. Blinded by passion, Barrow agrees to commit murder. At the last minute, however, he gets cold feet and later, out of guilt, decides to kill Janet. The tape ends, however. The publisher and another writer, Tom Keller, become convinced that Barrow is planning murder. The publisher calls the police while Keller heads for Janet's apartment. At the apartment, Keller discovers Janet dead and Barrow holding the murder weapon. Barrow is taken to the police station where he provides an ending to his novel and a complete confession, all on tape.

Louise Henderson rents a room to woman named Vera Brandon who begins to show an unreasonable amount of interest in Louise's newborn son. Louise begines investigating and discovers that she and Vera shared the same maternity ward when her son was born. She also discovers that Vera's baby died during childbirth and this death has left her mentally disturbed. She comes home only to both Vera and her son missing. She finds an address and calls the police. The police go to the address and discover Vera rocking the baby back and forth and claiming that the child is hers. The police return the child to Louise and send Vera to a mental hospital for treatment.

Tony Grainger is a young boy who gets fifteen dollars for his birthday. He asks his father Steven to take him to an out-of-the-way magic shop so that he can spend it. Mr. Dulong, the mysterious owner of the shop, takes an interest in the boy and agrees to teach him everything he knows about magic. Despite his father's protests Tony is invited to step into a cabinet by Mr. Dulong. Ignoring his father, Tony steps inside and promptly disappears. When Mr. Dulong, himself, disappears Steven is shocked. The next day Tony comes out of the cabinet and acts like nothing happened. Eventually the Grainger's realize that there son has become a master of black magic and that they are helpless in the face of his dark power.

Sheridan Westcott kills his wife, hides it in his Rolls Royce, and heads to a nearby lake to dispose of it. While he is checking the water level in the lake, his car is stolen by a car thief named Philadelphia Harry.

Bessie Carnby and her daughter Camilla have been feuding with their neighbors Henry and Samantha Wilkins. In order to patch things up Bessie invites them over for dinner. Samantha refuses to go, but Henry goes and tries to act friendly. Later, he disappears and Bessie sees Samantha digging a hole in her barn. Bessie accuses Samantha of murder and calls the police. The police dig up the hole and find a badly decomposing body. Samantha is executed for the crime, but later Henry returns claiming he went out to sea. He has inherited his wife's money and marries Camilla. Bessie realizes she has been tricked and, feeling guilty over having sent an innocent Samantha to her death, decides to bring Henry to justice by poisoning herself and making it look like he is responsible.

Rusty Connors is a con man that has just been released from prison. He looks up the wife of his dead former cellmate, a robber and murderer, named Miles Krause. Before he was imprisoned, Krause stole a significant amount of money and killed his partner. The money and the body, however, never turned up. Connors talks to Krause's wife Helen and hopes that she knows where the money is. She, however, does not have a clue. Eventually, however, they are able to figure out that the money is stored in an abandoned boathouse that is now infested with rats. In the boathouse, they find the money and the dead and half-eaten body of Krause's partner. When Connors sees the money he is overcome with greed and tries to murder Helen. She manages to knock him out. When Connors awakens, he finds himself bound and gagged and being taunted by Helen. She gets up to leave with the money, but is tripped by Connors and is impaled on a hook. As she dies, the scent of her blood attracts the rats.

Peg is bored with her marriage to Ted Beal, a wealthy toy manufacturer. She decides to have an affair with his young assistant John. She tells her lover to kill her husband. When John drags his feet on the murders, she decides to take matter into her own hands. She commits her crime and discovers that she was only being toyed with.

Martha Hunter is a mail order bride who has just moved into the rundown and not well-heated home of her new husband Luke. Martha is Luke's second wife and she becomes worried when she discovers that Luke's previous wife, who was also a mail order bride, died under mysterious circumstances on a vacation to Luke's relatives. Martha grows more fearful when she finds a offin like box and sees her husband digging in the cellar. When Luke suggests that they go one vacation she grows even more nervous. Prior to their departure, Luke insists that Martha go down to the cellar. Martha becomes terrified. She pulls a gun and kills Luke. After he is dead, she takes a look into the cellar and discovers that her husband installed a new furnace as a belated wedding gift.

Dan O'Herlihy (as Simon Carter) Inger Stevens (as Karen Wilson) Christopher Dark (as Manuel Sanchez) Chris Robinson (as Ricky) Richard Jaeckel (as Tom) One night when her husband is away, Karen Wilson is frightened when a man named Manuel Sanchez comes pounding on her door. He claims to be out of gas. Karen refuses to let him in and he must walk to a gas station. Later Karen hears a scream. She is told by the police that Sanchez's girlfriend who was waiting in the car was murdered while he was walking to the gas station. Karen suspects a neighboring writer named Simon Carter. The next evening Simon comes to Karen's home. She is rescued by her three surfing friends. Karen, however, is shocked to discover that her three friends are in fact the murderer's of Sanchez's girlfriend. They have her trapped, but she is rescued by Sanchez. He was returning to get even with her for contributing to the death of his girlfriend, but he manages to save her life instead.