Christine Villier is betrothed to Jacques Despard, a medical student. One evening she is assaulted by Manuel Le Grange, an escaped murderer, who strangles her father when the latter attempts to save her. Hearing of Villier`s murder, Despard returns to Christine, but she does not tell him of the attack. The next morning Christine leaves her home. In Paris her son is born and christened Jacques Cordet. Twenty-nine years pass. Jacques Cordet, now criminal prosecutor for the State, lives with his mother, who is respected as the Widow Cordet. Jacques, the victim of a strange malady, is afflicted with severe headaches. While under their torture he acquires another personality, that of Lazard, "The Strangler." As Lazard he is the leader of a band of Apaches. Their rendezvous is The Scarlet Sun Inn. Here Lazard reads of the prosecutor`s fight against the Apaches and his efforts to arrest the fiend, "The Strangler.