Four Sided Triangle

Dr. Harvey, the village's aging physician, breaks the fourth wall to introduce the extraordinary incident. He explains that most of what follows will unfold in a flashback.

Bill and Robin are boyhood friends who compete for Lena's affection. Their rivalry is tempered by shared curiosity that will later drive scientific ambitions.

Lena's family moves away during childhood. In adulthood Bill and Robin become scientists working in an old abandoned farmhouse on the Reproducer, a machine that can exactly duplicate physical objects.

Working in the old abandoned farmhouse, they collaborate on the Reproducer, a machine that can exactly duplicate physical objects. The project binds their friendship with professional ambition, testing loyalties and desires.

Lena returns to the village, reigniting Bill and Robin's long-buried feelings for her. Bill learns that Lena loves Robin and plans to marry him, prompting him to reassess the Reproducer's purpose.

Bill convinces Lena to allow him to use the Reproducer to create a duplicate of her. The experiment succeeds, producing Helen, an exact copy who immediately falls for Robin.

Bill believes electric shock therapy could erase Helen's knowledge of Robin. Helen consents, and Lena agrees to help with the procedure inside the old farmhouse.

The emotional stakes rise as the therapy proceeds, but the equipment overheats, explodes, and touches off a raging fire in the farmhouse. The fire threatens everyone and turns scientific ambition into tragedy.

Robin and Dr. Harvey arrive in time to rescue a woman from the fire. Bill and the other woman perish in the inferno, leaving the outcome of the duplications in question.

After the blaze, Harvey notes that Bill had to start Helen's heart with a device attached to the back of her neck, leaving two small scars. The rescued woman has no neck scars, so they deduce she is Lena, not Helen.

They determine that Helen died in the fire while Lena survived, though perhaps with memory loss. The cost of their experiment—creating a second self—looms over them as a moral warning.

Harvey's framing narration closes the tale, leaving the village with a strange story about identity and power. The incident serves as a cautionary note about tampering with life.