Tod Slaughter goes about the countryside strangling everybody. His evil scheme is to destroy the family who wronged him. He secret lab is complete with a torture chamber, featured in the films climax. Probably the most maniacal portrayal Tod ever gave.

Bedelia Carrington is living happily, it appears, in Monte Carlo with her husband Charlie Carrington. But a cultivated young artist, Ben Chaney, begins probing into her past with curious concern. Chaney, who is really a detective, learns that Bedelia's obsession for money has led her, in the past, to husband-poisoning for the insurance money.