Thomas Narcejac

Scottie Ferguson, a San Francisco police detective is forced to retire when a freak accident gives him a severe case of acrophobia--that is vertigo or dizziness in high places. Ferguson is hired by a rich shipbuilder to follow his wife who is behaving suspiciously and might be planning suicide. He falls in love with her, she is later murdered and Ferguson becomes demonic in his desire to re-create her in another woman.