Sorry, Wrong Number

In New York City in the 1940s, Mrs. Stevenson anxiously waits in her bedroom for her husband to return home from work. She must remain in bed due to her health, and her only means of contacting anyone outside her home is the telephone that sits beside her bed. For most of the last hour, she has been trying to dial her husband. When she is still unable to get in touch with him by dialing directly, she calls the operator to connect her to his number instead. The wires get crossed, and she overhears two men plotting the murder of a woman. The men, who can’t hear Mrs. Stevenson, discuss the details of the murder, which will take place at 11:15 PM that evening. The 1st Man tells George, the 2nd Man, that he is to wait until “the private patrolman goes around to the bar on Second Avenue for a beer” (8) at eleven o’clock before entering the victim’s home. George must then stab the woman at 11:15 PM, when a subway train will pass on the bridge overhead and “makes a noise in case her window is open, and she should scream” (8).