Frederico (Jean Sorel, Perversion Story) isn’t living the high life. His real estate firm Eurozone? A mess with business partners cutting him out. A friend from his smuggling days, Diego (Damián Velasco), is extorting him. And his wife Monica (Nadiuska, yes, just one name; she’s in Guyana: Cult of the Damned and played Conan‘s mom) has just learned that he’s having an affair with Eva (Bárbara Rey, The Night of the Sorcerers).

As if things couldn’t get worse for Frederico — and Monica — someone breaks into their house when she’s home all alone. She shoots whoever it is; they stand right back up and knock her out. Diego’s body is left, so the police assume he’s who broke in. This eliminates him from the blackmail scheme, except that’s when the phone calls start and Monica gets framed for murder. Then there’s Elena (Karin Schubert, Emanuelle Around the World), who is trying to play everyone against one another. That’s easy when the other partner, Arturo (Arturo Fernández), used to date Monica.

Man, was Jean Sorel typecast in giallo as a man who has no idea how cunning women can be?

Thanks to The Giallo Files for informing me that Il Buio Intorno a Monica translates as Darkness Surrounds Monica.