Montreal, 1964
On the evening of their first wedding anniversary, RUSSELL and MARY PARTRIDGE are enjoying an evening with friends, CHARLES and VICTORIA LEBLANC. Their discussion comes around to the subject of the criminal mind and RUSSELL (a psychiatrist) and CHARLES (a police detective) debate the origins of criminality.
After their guests leave, RUSSELL informs MARY that he is a murderer (seven times over) and that he plans to murder her within 48 hours. At first, MARY thinks he is joking, but quickly realizes he is not.
The next morning MARY wakes to find RUSSELL watching her. When he speaks to her, it is as if nothing ever happened. He asks her if she is feeling better? RUSSELL leaves to testify in a criminal trial and MARY, still afraid, rushes to see CHARLES.
CHARLES, having been informed by RUSSELL that his wife is experiencing paranoid delusions, cautions MARY against suspecting her husband. MARY, unsure what else to do, goes to see VICTORIA.
VICTORIA, who lives on a steady diet of romance and detective fiction believes her at once and decides they must find proof that RUSSELL is not the wonderful husband and man everyone thinks he is.
Later that evening, VICTORIA berates CHARLES for not doing anything. CHARLES receives a phone call from RUSSELL inviting him to search the Partridge house, to try to assuage MARY's fears.
The search turns up nothing, but VICTORIA is not deterred. Meanwhile, RUSSELL makes arrangements for MARY to be taken to a sanitarium.
VICTORIA confronts RUSSELL who refuses to allow her to see MARY. When he leaves, VICTORIA breaks into the Partridge house to search for herself.
Meanwhile, a detective from Interpol, DET. SGT. JOHN SIMS arrives at CHARLES' office on the hunt for an elusive international serial killer. A photograph from the trial in the newspaper has caused him to suspect RUSSELL. CHARLES is horrified as he listens to SIMS' story and realizes his dear friend is indeed the man he is looking for.
MARY and VICTORIA continue their search. In the living room, a set of curio monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil)--RUSSELL's prize possession-- catch VICTORIA's attention. She is thrilled when she lifts them to find there is something inside. Before she can see what it is, RUSSELL arrives home and the two women are horrified to find themselves in the presence of a killer. RUSSELL outlines his plan to kill MARY. There is a struggle in which the curio monkey's break. RUSSELL is distracted by the loss of this precious heirloom and MARY strikes him with a poker. The two women flee.
Back at the Leblanc home, VICTORIA talk with CHARLES and SIMS. MARY has been taken to the hospital. SIMS exits, succinctly summing up the debate from Scene 1. "If you really want to know what human nature is like, put two two year olds in a room with one toy."
Produced by Looking Glass Productions, Salon Pauline Boutal, Winnipeg, 2012