Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Carl and Elsa are a young married couple who live in a trailer near a highway on the beach in California. Carl works and therefore is away from the trailer all day, leaving Elsa alone. Carl is disturbed about this and warns Elsa not to go on the beach unless there are other people about. As Carl leaves, he asks a nearby, friendly neighbor, Mrs. Ferguson, if she will keep an eye on Elsa. Mrs. Ferguson learns that Elsa was formerly a ballet dancer who had a nervous breakdown. When Mrs. Ferguson calls on Elsa, she suggests that it is not wise for the trailer to be parked away from the others, and underneath a dark tree, for there are hitchhikers and others who may be dangerous. Mrs. Ferguson invites Elsa to go to town with her for some shopping, but Elsa refuses, for she wants to be home in the trailer when Carl returns from work. Mrs. Ferguson leaves, warning Elsa to be sure to keep the door locked. Later, that night, when Carl returns home from work, he finds a cake in the oven burned to a crisp and the trailer is in shambles. Elsa is unconscious. When Elsa is revived, she tells Carl that a man appeared in the doorway and she becomes hysterical saying that the man has killed her. Mrs. Ferguson, hearing the commotion, calls a doctor and the police. But Carl, knowing that this will upset the already hysterical woman, refuses to allow the doctor examine Elsa and also turns away the police. Carl learns from Elsa that the man who assaulted her was wearing a grey suit and she would remember him if she saw him again. Carl takes Elsa driving where she eventually sees and remembers the man. Carl follows the man and kills him. When he returns to Elsa she sees another man, completely unlike the man that Carl has just killed, and proclaims he is the man who assaulted her. What has Carl done?

John Forsythe plays Kim Stanger, personable young concert pianist, who has a disturbing premonition and decides to return to his small home town after an absence of four years. Upon arrival, Stanger is told by his sister-in-law, Susan, and his brother Perry, that the elder Stanger has been dead for years, the victim of a heart attack. Shocked that he had not been informed of the death of his father, Kim begins an investigation that leads to the discovery of discrepancies in the account of his father's death. With mounting suspicion and anxiety, he journeys to his father's favorite hunting lodge for the final key to the mystery and is met there by Susan, with a startling disclosure.

As the story opens, it is seen that we are in an old shack in the Old West. It is located at a crossroads and is a restaurant of sorts, a few miles out of town. Maggie Flynn is the owner and cook, assisted by Ben Morgan, an old-timer. When Ben leaves for more fuel, Maggie is left alone, but shortly afterwards, Del Delaney arrives. Del is in a strange mood, and does not relax, or take off his gun belt at Maggie's invitation. As Maggie prepares a meal, Red Hillman arrives. It is immediately obvious that the two men are at odds, and had Maggie not been present there would be gunplay. Although she tries her best, Maggie soon realizes she will not be able to stop the men from shooting one another. Or will she?

Frank and Mildred Partridge are a married couple who have lived a mediocre life. As the story opens, Frank has just gotten a job after being out of work, but he is upset, for in another few years he will be fifty--too young for an old age pension and too old to get another job. Further, they do not even own their own home. Frank says they both would be worth more dead. The more they consider the idea, the more Frank is in favor of it--all that needs to be done is Mildred disappear for seven years. The courts will declare her legally dead, and they will have more than enough money to last them the rest of their lives. They execute the plan and Mildred leaves their Ventura home to hide in Los Angeles. Her "disappearance" is soon reported. After the police, comes Kettle, an insurance investigator. Because of the circumstances, Kettle is certain that Mildred has been murdered and states he will prove it by producing Mildred's body. Further, Kettle promises he will keep searching the entire seven years for the body. Secretly, Frank sees Mildred and convinces her she should go to San Francisco. When Frank goes to join her at Christmas, Kettle again is shadowing him, and continues to do so for the next six years. By this time, Frank is beginning to crack. Time goes on, and two days before Frank is due to go to court to have Mildred declared legally dead, Mildred herself returns. It is a new Mildred--smart, sophisticated and well -dressed, for she has made a new life and a new love for herself, as she tells Frank, and now wants a divorce. Frank is horrified, then enraged, for he as spent seven years waiting for this very moment. What will Frank do now?

Diana Winthrop and her mother, Mrs. Winthrop, arrive at the Medeleine Hotel one night in Paris in 1899, shortly before the opening of the World Exposition. Though the city is crowded, they secure a room. Mrs. Winthrop is utterly exhausted and ill from their trip from Bombay. They are re taken to Room 342 where a doctor is summoned. Curiously, he sends Diana to his wife for medicine, saying he has no phone at home. Diana waits for two hours for the medicine, but upon her return she is met by complete bafflement. Everyone--clerk, porter, maid, insist she has not been at the hotel and that Room 342 has been rented for several days. No one, it seems, has ever seen her--or her mother--before.

Gene Barry stars as Dan Varrel, a gangland big shot and ex-convict, who plots a diabolical scheme to avenge the homicide of his younger bother. When Varrel is released from jail, he seeks out Lois Williams (Nancy Gates), a singer in a cheap nightclub who was responsible for his brother's death at the hands of the police. Now destitute and a marked woman, Lois tries frantically to find a friend for protection from Varrel, without success. Desperate and overwrought by the strain of the approaching disaster, the girl goes to Varrel and begs him to end her misery. But the ruthless Varrel has other plans. He forces her to accept the management of a dress business he has organized. When the business prospers and Lois, in her happiness, has almost forgotten her former plight, Varrel moves in to culminate his retribution.