During a rooftop chase, police detective John "Scottie" Ferguson is overcome with a severe case of acrophobia--a deep fear of falling which results in a stultifying vertigo--that leads to the death of a fellow officer. After retiring from the police force, Scottie attempts to return to a normal life, but his life takes another unusual turn when an old school aquaintance asks Scottie to shadow his wife, the luminescently beautiful but utterly mysterious Madeleine. Scottie is wary but the minute he sees her he cannot resist the chase. As his fixation with Madeleine grows, however, so too does her obsession with death. When Scottie's vertigo prevents him from saving Madeleine's life, his one chance at perfect love comes crashing to a brutal end. Then one day, Scottie sees a woman walking down the street who looks just like Madeleine. She is Judy Barton, a salesgirl from Kansas with her own secrets--secrets that will once again turn Scottie's world into a dizzying battle between illusion and reality.