If a man's home is his castle, then for Harriet Craig (the ever-fraught and overwrought Joan Crawford), a woman's home is her fortress. Seemingly safe within her domestic confines, harried Harriet wages war against her fear of abandonment, a fear that has settled like dust over everything. Waxed and wiped with fetishistic zeal, her fastidious, suburban home has no place for disorder, not even an untidy husband (Mr. Clean himself, Wendell Corey) who likes milquetoast with his morning coffee. But when Harriet's compulsion begins to undermine friendships and ruin careers, even briar pipe–puffing Mr. Craig can finally wash his hands of her.