Brandon wants excitement at any price. He persuades his weak-minded friend, Granillo, to assist him in the murder of a fellow undergraduate, Ronald Raglan. They place the body in a wooden chest and invite some acquaintances, including the dead man's father, to a party, the chest and its gruesome contents serving as a supper table. The horror and tension are worked up gradually and we see the reactions of the two murderers, closely watched by the suspecting Rupert Cadell, until finally they break.