Based on authorized access to Hitchcock's files and notes, this work creates a portrait of a master at work: building his screenplays from scratch; working on sets and storyboards during pre-production; filming the movies; and putting it all together and adding music in post-production. The book also shows how Hitchcock put together the storyboards for Lifeboat and for the crop duster sequence in North by Northwest. It details his meeting with Tippi Hedren to discuss her character in The Birds and how he attended the screen tests for Rebecca's title role. It also takes the reader behind the scenes on the sets of Strangers on a Train, Dial M for Murder, and Foreign Correspondent, and one can read Hitchcock's notes on the story that would become Shadow of a Doubt.