Henry Cecil, born in the mountains where they hardly know what an electric light is, where having a doorbell equals status. His house has a doorbell. There he lives with his mother and his brother on a small farm. A rival family nearby feels that it owns the land that the Cecil's are living on, and one night while Henry is gone, they shoot his mother and brother.

A grown man, and a steel magnate, Henry is one of the richest men in the nation. He never returned to the farm for vengeance, but Henry has his ways. For in a small cabin in the mountains near his old home, there's a doorbell. And when that doorbell rings, shrieks of hideous agony fill the house and the surrounding countryside, misery that fades into moans and sobs. He will get his revenge.