Horror legend Bela Lugosi stars in one of his most lauded and expressive roles, as the unwitting homicidal killer who is being commanded by his damaged wife to commit murder, albeit while under hypnosis. When the twin brother of a man wrongly accused of one of the murders arrives in town, he begins to unravel the whole dark, twisted truth. The town's leading citizen becomes a homicidal maniac after his wife deserts him.