When a shy traveling companion (Joan Fontaine) meets and marries a rich widower (Lawrence Olivier) to become the second Mrs. de Winter, we never learn her first name. This is because she is overshadowed by the first Mrs. Rebecca de Winter who was more sophisticated and glamorous than she. Even the servants--especially Rebecca de Winter's personal servant (Judith Anderson) Mrs. Danvers treat the new bride with contempt for her inability to command authority and manage the estate. Maxim de Winter is not much support to her as he is lost in his own mysterious moods which his new bride believes are all about his comparing her to his first wife and finding her inferior. With Mrs. Danvers designing her demise and her new husband trying to hide his past, the insecure new bride must rise to the challenge to assert her position and help her new husband climb out of his troubles.