This is one of Alfred Hitchcock's later, more psychologically disturbing films, telling the story of a young woman who is on the run with stolen loot. She shacks up at the Bates Motel, and that's the last time anyone sees her. Detectives tracking her end up at the motel managed by Norman Bates and his overbearing mother.

We finally meet Mrs Bates and learn the depth of both Norman's maternal attachment and his homicidal rage when it is revealed that he keeps his dead mother in the basement and has been dressing up as her all along!