Victor Frankenstein, a young Genevese student obsessed with natural philosophy and the secrets of life, discovers a method to animate dead matter. Driven by intense ambition, he constructs an eight-foot-tall being from charnel-house fragments and infuses it with a spark of vitality. Horrified by the hideous creature he has brought into existence, Victor flees his laboratory, abandoning the monster to the harsh realities of the world.
The abandoned creature, possessing a remarkably acute mind and a deep capacity for empathy, struggles to survive in a hostile society that reviles his monstrous appearance. After observing a modest family in exile for months, he attempts to make human contact, only to be violently rejected and beaten away. Embittered by universal hatred and the cruelty of his creator, the monster vows eternal vengeance against Victor and everything he holds dear.
Beginning his campaign of terror, the creature murders Victor's younger brother William and frames Justine Moritz, a beloved family servant, who is subsequently condemned and executed. Overwhelmed by guilt and the inescapable presence of the fiend, Victor confronts his creation in the icy expanses of the Alps. The monster demands that Victor create a female companion of equal deformity to share his exile, promising to leave humanity in peace if his request is granted.
Initially compliant out of fear for his surviving family, Victor travels to a remote Scottish island to fashion a mate. On the verge of completion, however, the horrifying prospect of propagating a race of devils causes Victor to destroy his work in front of the watching creator. Enraged by this betrayal, the monster vows to be with him on his wedding night, plunging Victor into a deeper spiral of despair.
The creature fulfills his dark promise by murdering Victor's closest friend Henry Clerval and later striking down Elizabeth Lavenza on their wedding night. Grief-stricken and driven by a singular desire for retribution, Victor pursues the monster across the frozen wastes of the north until his own strength fails him, leading him to the vessel of Captain Walton to recount his cautionary tale before his death.
