Medusa's Coil

The unnamed narrator of the story is driving to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, but gets lost in the unfamiliar countryside. He comes across a rundown plantation house, and finds the only inhabitant is an emaciated old man called Antoine de Russy. The narrator asks if he can spend the night in the house. The old man agrees, and begins to tell the tale of the place. He explains that he inherited the estate from his grandfather, and married in 1885. He had a son Dennis who, as a young man, was sent to the Sorbonne in Paris.