Carol Hammond is the daughter of a wealthy lawyer and politician named Edmund Brighton. Her husband Frank is a lawyer working for Brighton's practice. They all live together in a large apartment with Joan, Frank's teenage daughter from a previous marriage. Carol has been visiting a psychoanalyst because of a string of disturbing dreams she's been having featuring her decadent neighbor, Julia Durer. Julia's frequent, late-night parties infuriate and yet excite Carol, evoking images of wild sex-and-drug orgies.