On a rainy winter's evening at the turn of the century, the White family await their dinner guest. Sergeant-Major Morris has just returned from two decades as a soldier serving in India. His old friend Mr. White is eager to hear stories of his exotic travels... but it's not the stories he holds of foreign landscapes that Mr. White wants his family to hear about.

The Sergeant-Major carries with him a trinket: a cursed monkey's paw that he acquired overseas. It was cursed by an old fakir and can grant the owner three wishes. Despite warning them all of the downfall that befell all those who wished upon it, the White family contemplate taking their chances.

Is it magic? A curse? Or pure coincidence?