[1] Katharine Packard, a once-prolific movie star now struggling with alcoholism, lives a quiet and reclusive life of retirement with a small group of servants in a mansion in the Hollywood Hills.

One morning, during a drunken stupor, Katharine accidentally falls down the stairs and injures her leg, and is told she will have to stay in a wheelchair for a while because of it.

As a result, Katharine and her servants hire a young man named Victor "Vic" Valance to act as her personal assistant and nurse.

Unbeknownst to any of them, however, is that Vic is actually a serial killer who has been murdering and dismembering middle-aged women in and around the Hollywood area.

Leslie complies, but not before accusing Vic of "taking advantage" of Katharine's vulnerability and telling him that she will do everything she can to ensure that he leaves and never comes back.