Baron Victor Frankenstein is the archetypal aristocrat: well-read, cultured and arrogant. Beyond the sophisticated veneer exists a cruel, utterly unscrupulous man, obsessed with ambition. Determined to realise his greatest dream, to create life, he assembles a creature from organs gathered from various unwilling donors. The creature is successfully brought to life but the instability of the brain, irretrievably damaged, causes uncontrollable and violent spasms that result in indiscriminate murder, and it is the Baron to whom the blame is laid, with fatal consequences.