Herbert West, a scientist who came from Switzerland to one of the American universities, had views on the problem of life after death that differed from the generally accepted ones. To confirm his theories, he decided to use a special reanimating serum. He involved Kane, the best student in the medical department, who had access to corpses in the morgue, in his experiments. However, the revived dead were no longer fully human and turned into terrifying, insane zombies.