THE STORY: Wolfe lives a cloistered life in his beautifully decorated room at college. On the evening of a party, he and Pamela, a girl he is very interested in, are rudely interrupted by several other students. After Pamela leaves, the intoxicated young men tell Wolfe how intensely they dislike him, and then systematically destroy his piano, his beloved books, and a family heirloom, a charm which, according to the legend, will bring tragedy if broken. Early next morning Dick Seele, the ringleader, comes by to apologize. Wolfe is strangely quiet. Seele makes it clear he is interested in Pamela, and Wolfe invites him to date her. As Seele is leaving he asks how Wolfe seems not to have been ill affected by the party. Wolfe tells him it’s a matter of a hypodermic injection and offers one to Seele. The moment the syringe is out Wolfe informs Seele that he will lose consciousness in a few moments and he awaken he will find himself inside a trunk with holes bored into it, which will be thrown into 20 feet of water near Wolfe’s home. The scene shifts to Wolfe’s home in the marsh country where Sonia, an attractive young widow with 2 children, is about to leave after renting the place. Wolfe is annoyed at this threat to his plans but can’t do anything about it, particularly when one of Sonia’s children is injured, and the family must stay a little longer. Sonia sees that Wolfe is under a strain and, for all his charm, is something of a psychopath. But she is intrigued by him. But when she discovers that one of the two trunks he brought has a body in it the truth is out. Wolfe threatens to kill her to conceal his crime, but Sonia manages to switch the trunks before he carries it out. When Wolfe realizes the enormity of what he has done he is on the point of going to pieces. But he is saved by the appearance of his victim on the stairs—alive. In order not to disturb the tremendous tense mood created by the climax of this play, the authors have most ingeniously placed their epilogue first, so that the audience may know without being in any way let in on the secret of the play, that Wolfe has been cured and will marry Sonia.
