New York photographer Laura Mars' (Faye Dunaway) latest exhibit, its associated book titled "Eyes of Mars," and her continuing current work are considered controversial for the depiction of female sexuality side by side with violence. Laura has been having the occasional vision for several years, which started this thematic work. These visions started as fleeting thoughts, which have now become full blown moving pictures, as if she were looking through a camera lens. These visions begin to haunt her as she can see people she knows in these visions, they who end up being murdered by a knife through the eyes, the actual murder which she "sees" as it is happening through the eyes of the killer. As the police investigate these murders, she tries to explain to them her visions. The only one of the investigating detectives who believes her is the lead, Lieutenant John Neville (Tommy Lee Jones). Laura is scared not only for her friends and associates, but also herself as she can see in her visions that the killer is also after her. As she begins a personal relationship with Neville, she comes to the conclusion that the killer may not be some random nut who solely dislikes her work, but someone that she knows and trusts, the leading candidates being her estranged ex-husband, Michael Reisler (Raul Julia), who recently reentered her life, and her driver, Tommy Ludlow (Brad Dourif), who routinely carries a knife and whose criminal past she had only recently learned.—Huggo