When Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse take an apartment in the Bramford, an old and storied New York building, their charming, intrusive neighbors Minnie and Roman Castevet seem harmless enough — even generous. But as Guy's fortunes suddenly rise and Rosemary becomes pregnant, the attention of the elderly couple and their circle grows relentless. A trusted doctor is exchanged for the Castevets' friend Dr. Sapirstein; a folk charm of 'tannis root' appears around Rosemary's neck; months of unexplained pain are dismissed as ordinary.
Increasingly isolated, and warned by her old friend Hutch of the Bramford's history of witchcraft before he falls fatally ill, Rosemary begins to piece together a conspiracy that reaches into her own marriage. Ira Levin tells the story with deadpan realism, letting ordinary domestic detail curdle into paranoia, so that the reader shares Rosemary's doubt about whether the danger is supernatural or all in her mind — until the novel's famous final scene answers the question.
First published in 1967 and filmed by Roman Polanski a year later, Rosemary's Baby became the best-selling horror novel of its decade and a template for a generation of domestic and occult horror.