Tension

Milquetoast Warren Quimby works as the night manager at a Culver City pharmacy, choosing this higher paying shift and living in a cheap apartment above the pharmacy all in service to his wife, Claire Quimby, in an effort to save money to purchase a small house for them in the suburbs. Deep in his heart, he knows that Claire, who openly flirts even in front of him, is looking for someone to take his place, even if temporarily, until she finds that permanent way out of his life, all his measures to make her happy so that she won't leave him. As Warren discovers that she does not share his suburban dream, she, in turn finds that permanent replacement for him in the form of flashy and masculine liquor salesman, Barney Deager, who owns a beachfront house in Malibu. After a futile attempt to get Claire back by confronting Deager, Warren devises what he believes is a better scheme to deal with Deager: assume a new identity and persona - confident Paul Sothern - make it evident to people in Daeger's life that Paul Sothern is after him, then kill him, with the killer being assumed to be never seen Paul Sothern, who cannot be tied back to Warren. A few things may throw a wrench into Warren's plan to murder Deager without it being tied back to him. First, Claire has her own views of what she wants for her life, whether it be with Warren, Deager, or someone else. Second, Warren, as Paul Sothern, meets and falls for Mary Chanler, who ends up having a stake in what "Paul Sothern" does. And third, Police Lieutenant Collier Bonnabel, a regular at the pharmacy in believing it serves the best coffee in town, enters the fray and has his own ulterior motives.