Summary
Highlights
In the Other-World, everything is shrouded in darkness, illuminated by a growing greenish glow. As a huge, blazing green heavenly body rises, resembling a sun, his vision of the earthly world (the classroom) fades. Plattner observes strange, ball-shaped objects drifting over the hills and descends into a gorge where black, tomb-like buildings are visible. He notes that during the Other-World's 'night,' earthly things are vividly visible, while during its 'day' (with the green sun), they become imperceptible, explaining why inhabitants of our world cannot easily glimpse the Other-World.
Descending into the gorge, Plattner encounters limbless, tadpole-like creatures with human heads, which he identifies as 'watchers of the living.' These entities drift without walking, displaying expressions of distress, anguish, or sometimes gratified interest. He perceives that these creatures are observing events in his former world. He believes every human being in his world has a corresponding 'drifting head' watching them. He even recognizes faces resembling his deceased parents and others from his past, feeling a strange sense of responsibility towards them.
Plattner spends seven or eight days wandering this strange, green-lit world. During Earthly daylight, he can faintly perceive his old surroundings in Sussexville, causing him frustration and leading him to stumble. The constant presence of the silent, intent watchers, who occasionally brush against him, causes him immense mental distress and a longing to return home. He tries to escape them, but they relentlessly follow him.
On the ninth day, Plattner observes a scene from his world: a dying man on a bed and a woman rifling through a bureau. He sees a multitude of watchers gathered, focusing intently on the deathbed scene. As a bell tolls, signaling the end, the watchers become agitated. A 'beam of darkness' in the form of a shadowy arm extends from the multitude towards the bed. Plattner, understanding its ominous purpose, is terrified. He runs, slips, and the bottle of green powder he still carries smashes and explodes. He finds himself back in Mr. Lidgett's garden, stunned and bleeding.
The narrator concludes Plattner's story emphasizing its factual basis regarding the disappearance and anatomical inversion. He avoids elaborate embellishment, presenting Plattner's account as directly as possible. It is revealed that a death consistent with Plattner's vision occurred at the exact moment of his return. While the widow vehemently denies certain details of Plattner's story, his description of the deathbed room's furniture is noted as remarkably accurate. The narrator encourages the reader to consider the possibility of hallucinations, leaving the ultimate truth to individual interpretation.
The story introduces Gottfried Plattner, a free-born Englishman whose anatomical structure is inverted, with his heart beating on his right side and other internal organs similarly misplaced. This inversion, along with a newly acquired left-handedness, is presented as an undeniable fact, though the explanation behind it is deemed preposterous. The narrator emphasizes the credibility of the witnesses (six and a half pairs of eyes, including Plattner himself) and the tangible evidence of Plattner's altered state, setting the stage for a scientific yet fantastical narrative.
Plattner, a modern languages master who also reluctantly teaches chemistry, becomes intrigued by a greenish powder brought by a student, Master Whibble. During an impromptu chemical analysis, the powder explodes with deafening violence and a blinding flash. When the smoke clears, Plattner has vanished without a trace, leaving only a smashed slate and a blown-out window. The school's principal, Mr. Lidgett, attempts to suppress the story, but the event creates a sensation.
During Plattner's nine-day absence, many people in the neighborhood report vivid, uniform dreams of him wandering through an iridescent landscape, appearing distressed. Plattner returns as suddenly as he vanished, landing in Mr. Lidgett's garden. His physical inversion, initially unnoticed, becomes evident through his left-to-right writing and the later discovery of his heart's displacement during a medical examination. This physical change is presented as a crucial piece of evidence supporting his extraordinary claims.
The narrator distinguishes between the verifiable facts of Plattner's disappearance and inversion, and Plattner's own, more subjective account of his time in an 'Other-World.' Plattner describes being disoriented after the explosion, initially believing he was still in the classroom but unable to interact with his surroundings, seeing figures pass through him like ghosts. His perceptions gradually shift to fully experiencing an extraordinarily dark, silent world with a green glow along the horizon.