Summary
In the somber chambers of a grand estate, Charles Lind, recently afflicted by an irreversible blindness, navigates his world through the auditory lens provided by his precocious young niece, Marie. Each day, she meticulously reads his correspondence, while he, in turn, articulates his responses into the then-novel Dictaphone, a mechanical confidante preserving his every uttered thought. This fragile ecosystem of dependence and trust is irrevocably shattered when Charles's brother, John, entrusted with the family's financial stewardship, confesses to a calamitous depletion of their fortune through imprudent stock market gambles. A vitriolic confrontation ensues, escalating to a horrifying physical assault where John’s desperation nearly chokes the life from his sightless sibling. The night, already heavy with familial discord, culminates in a chilling gunshot. John is discovered, crouched in a tableau of guilt, beside Charles’s lifeless form. The subsequent arrest of John appears a foregone conclusion, yet the narrative veers unexpectedly. As detectives secure Marie’s residence, a familiar face among the household staff, Briggs the butler, is unmasked as a notorious fugitive. His frantic, ill-fated escape attempt ends in a hail of gunfire, leaving him critically wounded. It is in this crucible of tragedy and suspicion that young Marie, innocently toying with her uncle’s Dictaphone, stumbles upon a chilling revelation: the very instrument meant to capture Charles’s business directives has inadvertently preserved the voice of his true assailant. This damning sonic evidence, played at Briggs’s bedside as he hovers between life and death, elicits a final, harrowing confession from the dying butler, exonerating John and revealing the true depths of betrayal lurking within the seemingly quiet domestic sphere.
Synopsis
When Charles Lind is stricken blind, his brother John takes charge of his business affairs, while his little niece Marie reads his mail to him each day so that he may recite his replies into a Dictaphone. After John confesses that he has lost a great deal of Charles' money on the stock market, the two quarrel, and John nearly strangles his brother. Later, a shot rings out, and John is seen crouching by Charles' lifeless body. Following John's arrest, the detectives guarding Marie's house recognize Briggs, the butler, as a wanted criminal, and when he attempts to escape, they shoot him. Marie, in playing with her uncle's Dictaphone, discovers that his murderer's voice was captured on the recording. Played at the dying butler's bedside, the recording leads to Briggs's confession and John's release from prison.
