For two years, Walter Stackhouse was a faithful husband to his wife Clara. However, she is distant and neurotic, and Walter finds himself harboring terrible fantasies about her demise. When Clara's dead body is discovered at the base of a cliff (uncannily reminiscent of the recent death of a woman named Helen Kimmel, who was murdered by her husband), Walter finds himself under intense scrutiny. He makes several blunders that ruin his career and reputation, cost him his friends, and ultimately threaten his life. Clueless explores the dark obsessions that lurk in the minds of seemingly ordinary people. With unerring psychological insight, Patricia Highsmith portrays characters who cross the fragile line that separates fantasy from reality.