Angela Anderson [Sharon Stone] buys a pair of large scissors from a hardware shop, and on her way home she is attacked in the elevator of her apartment block by a red-bearded man. She defends herself with the scissors and escapes the assault, but is soon found by the twin neighbors who live next door: Alex Morgan [Steve Railsback] and Cole Morgan [Steve Railsback]. Alex is a charismatic soap-opera star, while Cole is an artist who uses a wheelchair. An awkward spark forms between Angela and Alex, set against Angela’s deep-seated sexual repression that keeps her feelings tightly restrained. Dr. Stephan Carter [Ronny Cox], Angela’s psychiatrist, treats her with hypnotherapy, and through these sessions a red-bearded figure named Billy from Angela’s past emerges—a chilling coincidence to the attack she just survived.
As Angela’s life begins to fracture under the tension of Alex’s growing attention and Cole’s unsettling presence, she is drawn deeper into a dark labyrinth. After another unsettling encounter with the red-bearded attacker and mounting harassment from Cole, Angela is lured with the offer of a job to a large, mysterious apartment, where she quickly finds herself trapped. In the master bedroom, she discovers the body of her attacker, killed by the same pair of scissors she bought earlier. A lone raven, kept in a cage, is the only other living thing in the room and it croaks a grim message—Angela killed him.
Exploring the apartment, Angela encounters rooms full of exhibits about her own psychology, as if someone has designed the space to push her toward insanity. Meanwhile, Alex is determined to locate Angela, and Cole suddenly rises from his wheelchair, attacks Alex, and then disappears. After numerous failed escape attempts, Angela frees the raven, ties a message to its leg, and uses the blood-stained scissors to open a vent, sending the bird into the building’s air system. The next morning she wakes to a macabre tableau: the attacker’s body has been moved to the dining room, and the raven’s mutilated corpse sits atop a plate beside it. This jarring image triggers a childhood flashback in Angela: her red-bearded stepfather Billy was killed by her mother with scissors, a traumatic moment that lies at the root of her repression.
The following day, Dr. Carter’s wife Ann [Michelle Phillips] arrives at the apartment; she is having an affair with the owner and discovers her husband waiting there, disguised in a red beard. He reveals that he was Angela’s attacker all along, admitting he murdered her lover with the same scissors and manipulated Angela into taking the blame, exploiting what his hypnotherapy sessions had revealed about her past. Carter and Ann scheme to locate the scissors that could serve as damning evidence. Trapped in a trance-like state, Angela wanders toward the apartment’s exit as the front door is left ajar, and she closes it behind her, sealing Carter and Ann inside. Carter tries to lure Angela back by posing as Billy, but his ruse fails.
Outside, Alex tracks Angela to the address and comes to her rescue. Carter pounds the scissors against the glass of a window in a frenzy, while a liberated Angela faces him with a quiet, vindicated smile.
