A momma's boy whose mother owns a successful business places personal ads in a newspaper trying to find a girlfriend. He finds one, and she visits him from out of town. He falls in love with her and she claims to do the same, but becomes upset on learning that her mother, not the son, owns the business. So on meeting Mom, she gives her the gift of an ugly looking plant which she says will make the Mom's life better as long as she puts it by her bedside.

She does, and ends up dead the next day. According to the family doctor, all her blood disintegrated. The man and the woman marry, but she becomes upset that the control of the business is in the hands of another man (named "Mr. Bell") before it can be inherited by her husband. So she visits Mr. Bell, and gives him a gift of the ugly looking plant (she calls it "hema endrantis" (sic)), and also convinces him to put it by his bedside. He does, and he dies.

Then her new husband gets suspicious, and the tale REALLY gets started... 