In an apartment near Sutton City, Jim and Irene Westcott live with their two children. The couple loves music, both live in concert and through their radio. When their radio breaks down, however, Jim promises to buy Irene a new one. It arrives, but Irene is shocked by its ugliness. She decides she can hide its numerous knobs and displeasing green light behind a sofa. As she listens to it one evening, an interference overlaps the music and she struggles with the knobs to find the music again. Instead, she hears elevator sounds and doorbells that the radio seems to pick up from the neighboring apartments.  She shuts the radio off in bewilderment. When Jim returns home, he also fiddles with the knobs to find the music but fails, and tells Irene he will call for a repairment. The next day, Irene is told by the maid that the repairer had stopped by and fixed the radio. Settling down, Irene plays Chopin but hears interference again, this time, with an argument between a nearby man and woman. No matter what switch she flips, she hears one random conversation to the next. Irene tells Jim to turn off the radio in fear that others can hear the sounds of their own apartment too.  Irene becomes obsessed with eavesdropping, and even leaves a luncheon date with her friend early to rush home and listen in on more neighbor conversations. Jim begins to notice Irene’s strange, depressed behavior, as she acts quite rudely to a hostess during a dinner with friends and begins to doubt herself. Irene’ s obsession worsens, as she becomes too immersed in the neighbors’ drama and falls sobbing, causing Jim to asks her why she must continuously eavesdrop. Irene becomes further paranoid, asking Jim if he really loves her, and Jim goes to repair the radio for good as a last resort. The repair ends up costing much more than the family can afford, and Jim worries about their future, as Irene reveal that she too has secrets from her husband about her ability to pay off the money she uses to buy clothes. The radio plays nonchalantly in the back.