Rosemary Woodhouse a bright but somewhat naive young housewife, and Guy, her husband and a struggling actor, move into the Bramford, an antiquated New York City apartment building. Their neighbors, Minnie and Roman Castevet are an elderly and slightly eccentric couple who tend to be meddlesome but appear to be harmless. While doing the laundry, Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio who has been taken in and helped by the Castevets after living on the street. As Rosemary admires a pendant necklace the Castevets gave to Terry, she remarks on the strange smell which seems to be coming from the pendant; Terry tells her it is from some kind of root. Returning home one night, Guy and Rosemary see a commotion and police on the street outside the Bramford; Terry has thrown herself to her death from the window of the Castevets' seventh-floor apartment. Minnie and Roman arrive and are shocked by what has happened. Rosemary tries to console them by telling them how highly Terry had spoken of them when they'd met in the laundry room