Peter Donaldson, a young lawyer, cherishes an idea to win fame and fortune as a barrister by representing only the right and supplying to the poor legal talent impossible to secure with their finances. With his savings almost exhausted he determines upon suicide. Professor Barstow, a chemist and college friend of Donaldson`s, invites the lawyer to his laboratory to witness the end of an experiment with a mysterious poison which is supposed to act fatally exactly seven days from the time it is taken, leaving no trace or clue. To Donaldson`s amazement, he sees the dog selected for the test drop dead at the end of the seventh day. Fascinated he steals some of the poison and returns to his home. There he drinks the poison at twelve o`clock noon, on June 1. Immediately after he engages a suite at a fashionable hotel, and invests a good part of his savings in a wardrobe. Then he enters a high priced café. Ellen Arsdale and her brother Ben arrive for dinner.