Synopsis: A young spendthrift is periodically helped by a mysterious old man who each time gives him a fortune, soon dissipated. Full of shame, he decides to make good use of the last huge sum he receives, funding institutions to help widows and orphans. The old man, an alchemist, perceiving the change in him, takes him to his house and puts him to the test : whatever he sees, hears or feels, he must not move or say a word, for everything is an illusion. The young man then undergoes in silence a long series of horrible visions. Eventually transformed into a woman, (s)he lives a second life from the start, gets married, has a child, but utters one cry when the latter's skull is cracked open. The young man then comes back to reality : the alchemist is furious, for this lack of control caused by love made his experiment fail, when it was nearing completion. He disappears from the young man's life, never to be seen again.