Seymour Johnston is a vain, silly man, but that's not how he sees himself. Nor does he see himself the way his late father did--as a man who couldn't be trusted with a large inheritance, a man who needed to make his own way in the world. That's why Seymour's father left all his money to his sister, Seymour's Aunt Muriel. Of course, once she is dead, the money will all go to him. But the middle-aged Aunt Muriel does not seem destined to die any time soon. In the meantime, how will Seymour keep his antique shop going? More important, how will he be able to enjoy any of the finer things in life? When Seymour, reduced to eating in a diner, finds a wallet someone had dropped, the answer comes to him immediately.

When a young man sees his fiancée struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver, he is inconsolable. When questioned by the police, he is unable to remember anything that he saw, even though he wants very much to have the driver caught. A week later, he is visited by a stranger who claims he can help. The visitor tells him that his own son died in the same way, and he offers to help the young man to remember the license plate number that he saw, by using special memory recall methods. It's not clear, though, what the visitor's motive for helping might be.

Ellen and Steve live in a New York neighborhood that is being terrorized by a strangler known only as the Creeper. Ellen wants a new lock for her apartment door in order to be safe. She becomes more paranoid until a locksmith arrives. As the locksmith begins work, Steve calls. He tells Ellen that the Creeper has been using his job as a locksmith to get into the homes of his victims. The news comes a little too late as the Creeper attacks Ellen and begins to strangle her.

Mary Summers does not want to stay alone at home when her husband Arthur goes away on business. She asks that her family be allowed to stay with her. Arthur refuses her request. While Arthur is away an escaped mental patient breaks into the house. Surprisingly, the mental patient gets along with Mary. She is not afraid of him. She tells him about a dream she has had where someone follows her up the stairs. When the police arrive, the mental patient makes an escape. After the the police leave, Mary hears someone coming up the stairs just like in her dream. She find's Arthur's pistol as the door opens. At the door is Arthur. He came home early when he heard about the escape at the asylum. Even though she knows its him, Mary shoots him. She then calls her family and tells them she is coming home.

An insurance investigator and his wife look into the case of Mrs. Gillespie, who has been widowed twice -- and has twice enjoyed windfalls from her husbands' life insurance.

In the midst of a heated quarrel, a man lifts up the fireplace poker in his hand and brings it down on his wife, who drops to the floor. She's dead. The man puts her body in the trunk of his car and drives off, hoping to find somewhere to dispose of it. If he thought his wife was a nag, she'll seem like sweetness and light compared to a motorcycle cop, who stops him and insists he fix his broken taillight.

London, 1912. A man who runs a small shop may get drunk too much. And he may not have been the best father in the world. In fact, his 35-year-old son has proved to be worthless. Can't keep a job. Always borrowing money from his father and not paying it back. But Joe Saunders is going to do right by his son just this once: he's not going to lend him any more money. The boy will have to get it on his own. The trouble is, Sam Saunders needs the money to persuade a cheap showgirl to run off with him. And he'll do anything to get it. Meanwhile, an old friend pays Joe a late-night visit.