The story has been ripped off and parodied so many times, that virtually everybody would most likely know the events. In any case, the movie stars James Stewart as a risk-taking magazine photographer whose most recent risk has landed him in a legcast and wheelchair. He spends his days gawking at his neighbors and all the goings-on around him, but he, naturally, is very bored. He can't leave the house, and all he can witness is stuff that is far more mundane than what he is used to, although his society girlfriend Grace Kelly does her best to liven things up. But his passive boredom will soon lead into something just as risky as any of his more active assignments.
He notices some strange things, all involving the salesman (Raymond Burr) across the street. He watches the man arguing with his wife, who is an invalid. Days later, things appear very odd. He notices that the bedroom curtain is closed. Then, in the middle of the night, the salesman makes numerous trips in and out of the apartment, with his suitcase. Then a few days later, he sees the salesman washing his walls... and cleaning saws! Stewart puts the pieces together, and they form the murder of the salesman's wife. Well, at least in his mind.
Nobody else seems to believe him, especially his detective friend, who finds all sorts of possible reasons for the salesman's actions, and even digs up clues that say without question that the wife went away on a trip. Kelly also sees Stewart as a man obsessed... that is until she sees something which persuades her to believe Stewart's convictions. Then she too becomes obsessed with the unfolding drama.
The rest of the movie details their continuous watching of, and, later, active participating in, this drama. Stewart remains the man confined to the wheelchair, but Kelly puts her own life at risk, especially in a sequence in which she breaks into the apartment to see if she can find the wife's wedding ring (her reasoning is that no wife would leave the apartment for any reason without wearing her wedding ring, or at least without being in possession of it.)
