[1] The distinguished chemical research scientist Nora Goodrich is postponing her marriage to her fiancé, Dr. Stephen Lindstrom, though her assistant and best friend Arline Cole advises her not to put him off too long.

Nora takes home the materials to test on herself a new anaesthetic she has invented, which she predicts will induce vivid dreams and hallucinations before putting the subject completely under.

When Nora comes home from the hospital, disfigured but not blinded and with the prospect of restoration through plastic surgery, Stephen finally gets to see her, but Arline's work of alienation succeeds: they accuse each other of not caring, and part.

When Nora refuses, Jane pulls a gun and starts grabbing all her jewelry from its box, demanding her engagement ring too and scooping up her papers.

At this point, she wakes up on the couch in her original apartment, with Stephen holding her and a friendly and harmless Arline standing by to tell her the experiment worked perfectly.

The future director of El Cid and a half-dozen landmark James Stewart westerns shows a flair for dramatic confrontations.

"[3] Writing in The Crime Films of Anthony Mann, Alvarez says, "Irrespective of his reservations and despite its unsatisfying conclusion, the picture is an ingenious and frenzied little thriller".