Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde recap

London lawyer Gabriel Utterson investigates the connection between his respectable friend Dr Henry Jekyll and the violent Edward Hyde, whom Jekyll's will names as heir. Hyde murders Sir Danvers Carew and disappears, while Jekyll briefly returns to society before shutting himself inside his laboratory. After Dr Lanyon dies from the shock of a secret encounter and Jekyll's butler fears foul play, Utterson and the servant break into the laboratory and find Hyde dead in Jekyll's clothes. Documents explain that Jekyll invented a potion that transformed him into Hyde, a separate body through which he indulged impulses he wished to conceal. The transformations eventually began without his consent, and the effective drug could not be recreated after its original ingredients ran out. Losing the struggle for control and facing exposure, Hyde kills himself; Jekyll's confession records the end of both identities.

During a Sunday walk, Richard Enfield tells his relative, the lawyer Gabriel Utterson, about a sinister man named Edward Hyde. Enfield once saw Hyde trample a child and then obtain compensation from a neglected building, using a cheque signed by a respected man. The story troubles Utterson because his friend Dr Henry Jekyll has made a will leaving his estate to Hyde and granting Hyde control if Jekyll disappears. Utterson consults Dr Lanyon, another old friend, but learns only that Lanyon and Jekyll have fallen out over Jekyll's unconventional research. After watching the mysterious building, Utterson meets Hyde and finds him immediately repellent. He then visits Jekyll's adjoining house, where the butler Poole confirms that Hyde has a key and the servants have orders to obey him. Utterson fears Hyde is blackmailing Jekyll and may hasten his death to inherit.

At a dinner, Utterson presses Jekyll about the will. Jekyll refuses to explain his relationship with Hyde, insists that he can be free of Hyde whenever he chooses, and asks Utterson to protect Hyde's rights if necessary. Nearly a year later, a maid sees Hyde meet the elderly Sir Danvers Carew in the street. Hyde suddenly attacks Carew with a cane and kills him. A letter found on the victim leads the police to Utterson, who identifies the suspected killer. Utterson accompanies Inspector Newcomen to Hyde's rooms in Soho. Hyde has fled, but the search turns up the broken half of the murder weapon and signs that papers have been burned. The other half of the cane is known to Utterson as a gift he once gave Jekyll, strengthening the unexplained link between the doctor and the fugitive.

Jekyll tells Utterson that his association with Hyde is over and gives him a letter in which Hyde supposedly promises to escape without further help. Utterson's clerk, Mr Guest, notices that Hyde's handwriting closely resembles Jekyll's, though written with a different slant. Utterson concludes that Jekyll forged the letter to shield a murderer. With Hyde absent, Jekyll becomes sociable and resumes his charitable activities, but after several months he abruptly shuts himself away. Lanyon has also changed: visibly ill and terrified, he refuses any further mention of Jekyll and soon dies. He leaves Utterson a sealed account that is to be opened only after Jekyll's death or disappearance. Bound by his professional habits, Utterson does not read it. Jekyll remains secluded, and Poole repeatedly tells callers that the doctor will see no one.

Enfield and Utterson see Jekyll at an upstairs window and begin a friendly conversation with him. A look of terror suddenly crosses Jekyll's face, and he slams the window shut. Later, Poole comes to Utterson in alarm. For days, the person hidden in Jekyll's laboratory has spoken in an unfamiliar voice, kept a masked face from the servants, and sent Poole from chemist to chemist seeking a particular drug. Poole believes his master has been killed and replaced. He and Utterson force their way into the room. Inside they find Hyde dead from poison and wearing clothes made for Jekyll; Jekyll himself is nowhere to be found. A new will names Utterson rather than Hyde as heir. Jekyll has also left instructions directing Utterson first to Lanyon's sealed account and then to Jekyll's own confession, promising an explanation of the locked-room mystery.

Lanyon's account describes receiving urgent instructions from Jekyll to retrieve chemicals and a drawer from the laboratory. Hyde came to collect them, mixed a potion, drank it, and physically changed into Jekyll. The sight shattered Lanyon's health and explains his terror and death. Jekyll's confession then reveals that he developed the drug while trying to divide the opposed elements of his personality. It gave him Hyde's younger, smaller body and allowed him to pursue concealed desires without compromising Jekyll's public identity. As Hyde, he committed escalating acts of violence, culminating in Carew's murder. Jekyll initially believed he could choose between the identities, but Hyde grew stronger and transformations began occurring involuntarily. The effective potion relied on an unknown impurity in the original chemical supply, so replacements failed. Confined to the laboratory and running out of the mixture that restored Jekyll, he completed his statement while expecting Hyde to take permanent control. When Utterson and Poole entered, Hyde used poison to avoid capture and died, bringing Jekyll's life to an end as well.

Lanyon's narrative reveals that Hyde came to him under Jekyll's instructions, mixed a drug from materials retrieved from Jekyll's laboratory, and transformed into Jekyll before his eyes. The experience destroyed Lanyon's health. Jekyll's final statement explains that he created the drug to separate the conflicting sides of his nature and used the form of Hyde to act without the restraints attached to his own identity. Hyde gradually grew stronger, and the changes began occurring without the drug. After Hyde murdered Carew, Jekyll tried to stop transforming, but he could not maintain control. The original potion depended on an unidentified impurity in one chemical, and later supplies would not reproduce it. Trapped in the laboratory and nearly out of the effective mixture, Jekyll wrote his confession while he still could. By the time Utterson and Poole forced entry, Hyde had taken poison and died in Jekyll's clothes. Jekyll was gone, leaving the two identities' shared life ended with Hyde's body.