 Gein appears in sequences throughout the film, in which he seems to prompt Hitchcock's imagination regarding the "Psycho" story, or act as some function of Hitchcock's subconscious mind (for instance, drawing Hitchcock's attention to sand on his bathroom floor, the quantity of which reveals how much time his wife Alma has been spending at the beachhouse with Whitfield Cook).Hitchcock's wife and artistic collaborator, Alma, is no more enthusiastic about the idea than his colleagues, especially since she is being lobbied by their writer friend, Whitfield Cook, to look at his own screenplay.However, she warms to Hitchcock's proposal, suggesting the innovative plot turn of killing the female lead early in the film.