James Whitmore plays a popular, good-looking, engaged, and successful man. He then bravely rescues a friends young son one night during a fire, but is knocked unconscious and has burning liquid pour all over his face turning him into a hideously deformed "monster". It turns out he has brain damage causing him to later act eccentric and illogically - such as paying a surprise visit to his now former fiance, as though nothing had changed, which was an especially disturbing scene. The reactions of all, including the rescued child, to him is the theme of the movie.