At Manderley, the estate of Maxim de Winter, everyone is excitedly awaiting the imminent return from abroad of the owner and his new wife. Maxim de Winter has unexpectedly remarried only a year after the death of his first wife.

But the inconspicuous young woman enthusiastically greeted by Maxim’s relations, Beatrice and Giles Lacy, falls far short of everyone’s expectations. She is quickly made to feel that her shy and unpretentious manner is out of place in the world to which Maxim de Winter belongs. The criterion by which she will be judged in future is Rebecca, the first Mrs de Winter.

Rebecca continues to be, one year after her death, the indisputable mistress of Manderley. Everything is still carried our in accordance with her wishes by the sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers, who was slavishly devoted to her. Through the deliberately calculated insinuations of Mrs Danvers and the silence on Maxim’s part, an overpowering image of Rebecca has taken shape in the young woman’s mind as well as the certainty that her husband must surely still love such a goddess. Her insecurity makes her an easy prey for Mrs Danvers who suggests a particular dress – a family heirloom – for her to wear at the forthcoming costume ball at Manderley.

When the young Mrs de Winter, carefully attired and adorned by Mrs Danvers, proudly descends the staircase just befare the opening of the ball, Maxim is thunderstruck. He angrily orders her to change into another dress and ignores her far the remainder of the evening. It is only after Maxim has left the ball that the young wife discovers that she has appeared dressed exactly like Rebecca at her last costume ball.

In the meantime another incident claims Maxim’s complete attention. A tanker has hit a reef in the neighbouring bay and a diver sent down to assess the damage has discovered the sunken sailing boat on which Rebecca lost her life. The finding of Rebecca’s body in the cabin as weil as holes in the planking shed new light on the case as weil as on Maxim de Winter who, at the time of the fatality, identified a woman’s corpse washed up by the sea as that of Rebecca …