In the early 20th century, a wealthy and deranged scientist obsessed with perfecting the human form concocts a plan to create a pair of superhuman beings – one male and one female. He is convinced that through these creations, which he will design for peak physical perfection and docility, he can engineer a new, superior race of humans. His grand vision involves assembling body parts from various corpses, selecting for characteristics he deems optimal. His lab is in a grand estate that also houses his unsatisfied wife and his disinterested children.

Jumping at an opportune moment, the scientist believes he has found the ideal head for his male creation, belonging to a handsome yet dim-witted young farmer who desires to enter a life of monasticism. Unknown to the scientist, his wife has been carrying on with the farmhand, adding a complicated tangle of desires and resentments into the mix. Meanwhile, a volatile stable boy, befriended by the children of the house, becomes an unwitting participant in the macabre project. The scientist’s unscrupulous methods and fanatical pursuit of his dream leads him down a path of ethical compromise, as the distinction between life and death becomes dangerously blurred within the walls of his gothic mansion.