sentences:  Robert Sandell (Raymond McKee), despondent over his bad luck as a writer and his mother's declining health, attacks and attempts to rob a theatergoer, Dr. Lamb (Lon Chaney), a sinister, fanatical physician living in the suburbs of New York.Lamb takes the boy to his home, learns his story, and agrees to perform an operation on Mrs. Sandell (Virginia True Boardman) on one consideration – that Robert shall, at the end of eight days, deliver himself to the doctor to do with as he will, for experimental purposes.Frantic with worry over his dying mother's condition, Robert agrees.