Pat (Gina Gershon) is a sensual and very self-assured southern belle, with a vague and undefined past. At the start of the story she marries Tom (Ryan McPartlin,) a handsome young guy who left his wife and his two children for Pat. Pat is very concerned, to the extent of obsession, that in the eyes of the world she will look succesful, happy and rich. But many people are against this marriage, especially the rich parents of Tom, who denounce him. Without financial back-up Tom has a hard time to make ends meet, but this doen't prevent Pat from living a life of luxury, persuading him to make high debts in order to buy a big mansion with horse stables. Things unavoidably go awry, and the couple decides to take in the grandparents of Tom to help them. Then the parents of Tom are killed by a prowler and Tom is accused. Pat forbids him to make a deal with the prosecution and he gets convicted and ends up in jail. In the meantime grandma and grandad gradually grow sick and soon we see that Pat is responsible, slowly poisining them. She gets caught and also goes to jail for seven years. After that (Tom still serving time and divorcing her,) she comes to live with her younger sister, Rachel (Rachel Blanchard.) Pat takes on a new job (with falsified credentials) as a private nurse of a very rich invalid and soon takes up her old schemes: murdering the wife and luring the husband into making her his benificiary. Her sister gets suspicious when she, too, suffers from strange indigestions and tries to find evidence, which at last succeeds and Pat is arrested and convicted once again.