In 1959, Alfred Hitchcock opens his latest film, ''North by Northwest'', to considerable success, but is troubled by a reporter's insinuation that he should retire. Seeking to reclaim the artistic daring of his youth, Hitchcock turns down film proposals, including ''Casino Royale (novel)'' and ''The Diary of Anne Frank (1959 film)'', in favor of a horror novel called ''Psycho (novel)'' by Robert Bloch, based on the real-life crimes of murderer Ed Gein. Gein appears in sequences throughout the film, in which he seems to prompt Hitchcock's imagination regarding the ''Psycho'' story, or act as some function of Hitchcock's subconscious mind (for instance, drawing Hitchcock's attention to sand on his bathroom floor, the quantity of which reveals how much time his wife Alma has been spending at the beachhouse with Whitfield Cook).