 Carl checks into a hotel and promptly steps out onto the ledge, apparently intending to kill himself. Carl recounts the events that have led him to this decision. His beautiful wife Karen was having an affair with a married man called Steve and eventually decides to leave her husband for him. Carl warns her that men like Steve will never leave their wives for a mistress but she dismisses this only to find that her husband had it right all along. In despair, she commits suicide. On the ledge, Carl seems willing to talk only to the local beat cop, Officer Barrett who goes out on the ledge to talk Carl into stepping back into the room. Little does he know that this is exactly what Carl had in mind.