| Director | Terence Fisher |
|---|---|
| Runtime | 81 min |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Budget | £25,000 |
Dr Harvey, an old rural physician, breaks the fourth wall to relate an unusual occurrence that happened in his village. The bulk of the story is told in flashback.
Bill and Robin are boyhood friends who compete for the affections of Lena, a beautiful girl about their own age. Lena's family moves away, and in adulthood the two men become scientists. Working in an old abandoned farmhouse, they collaborate on the Reproducer, a machine that can exactly duplicate physical objects.
Lena returns to the village several years later, and Bill and Robin's forgotten childhood feelings return. In time they abandon their work on the Reproducer, and Robin leaves the village to learn his family's business. Bill is disappointed to discover that Lena loves Robin and intends to marry him.
Hoping that he can win Lena's affections, Bill convinces her to allow him to use the Reproducer to create a duplicate of her. The experiment succeeds and Bill names the duplicate "Helen". Because Helen is an exact copy, she also falls in love with Robin. Bill believes that electric shock therapy can be used to erase Helen's knowledge of Robin. Realizing she has no chance of gaining Robin's affections, Helen agrees to the shock therapy. Bill convinces Lena to help him with the procedure in the old farmhouse. The process proceeds as planned, but the apparatus overheats, explodes and causes a terrific fire.
Robin and Dr Harvey arrive in time to rescue a woman from the fire. Bill and the other woman perish in the inferno. Harvey, having been briefed on the situation by Robin, discovers that the woman they rescued has amnesia. The two men wonder which woman they have saved. Dr Harvey recalls that Bill had to start Helen's heart with a device that he attached to the back of her neck, leaving two small scars. Robin is relieved to find that there are no marks on the neck of the woman they have rescued: she is Lena.