Jerry Blake (Terry O'Quinn) is a man psychotically facinated by the perfect life - a dream house in the suburbs, a big back yard, an adoring wife and loving children. In a peaceful town just outside of Seattle, he marries the attentive Susan Maine (Sheely Hack of Charlie's Angels). He also becomes the stepfather of Susan's 16-year-old daughter Stephanie (Jill Schoelen).

Stephanie, however, is uneasy with Jerry's cheerful manner and doesn't hide her distrust. Although Jerry pretends to be the ideal dad, the teenager glimpses his repressed violence and even concludes that he might be the same man who, one year earlier, murdered his family, but never got caught. Her instincts are right.
Jerry is a killer, but no one can prove it.

No one except Jim Ogilvie (Stephen Shellen), the brother of Jerry's murdered wife and the fugitives relentless tracker.

Stephanie's psychiatrist, Dr. Bondurant (Charles Lanyer) shares her doubts about Jerry's sanity. As Dr. Bondurant, Stephanie and Ogilvie bgin to close in on Jerry, he begins to siplay the telling signs of a man out of control. His perfect life is fast disappearing, just as it did with his last family. In a violent fit, he kills the psychiatrist, and later murders Ogilvie. The only ones left are Stephanie and Susan, and he plans to kill them, too. He chased Stephanie wildly through the attaic with a deadly knife, as the action comes to a screaming climax.