When his small hamlet of Birzirkenstadt is ravaged by a deadly plague, the young and rebellious Doctor Janick reveals a radical cure. But his revolutionary theories about life and death label him a heretic and he is rewarded with banishment. As Janick disappears into the wild, his secret love, Esmeralda, succumbs to the deadly disease, the superstitious doctors helpless to cure her. Enter a mysterious masked figure known only as the Creator, who snatches Esmeralda's body from its grave and begins to conduct weird experiments--their object: to bring her back from death's cold embrace.