The novel begins with the captain of a ship, Robert Walton, who finds a

man, Victor Frankenstein, travelling across the ice and is weak by the cold.
Walton helps him and listens to the tragic story of Victor about the monster that
he created.

Then the captain writes some letters to his sister in England telling the story.

Victor first describes his happy childhood with his adopted sister Elisabeth in
Geneva.

Later he enters the university to study philosophy and chemistry. He is a very

clever student who wants to find the secret of life. He does a plan to re-create
and reanimate a dead body. He uses a combination of chemistry, alchemy, and
electricity to make it. One night he brings his creation to life.

When he looks at the monster he has created, however, the sight horrifies him.
Then Victor runs away and feels sick. When he goes back to his apartment the
monster is gone.

Victor’s father writes him telling his youngest brother has been murdered. Victor
is convinced that the monster is the murderer. However, the housekeeper has
been accused. She is executed. Victor knows who the killer is but he can’t say
anything.

Then Victor goes to the mountains. One day, the monster approaches him. He
admits the murders because he wants to injure to his cruel creator. The monster
begs Victor to create a mate for him because he doesn’t want to be alone.

Victor refuses at first, horrified by the idea of creating a second monster. After
returning to Geneva, Victor look for information to create a female monster.

One night, with many doubts about the morality of his actions and horrified by
the possible consequences of his work, Victor destroys his new creation. The
monster swears revenge.

Later that night, he discovers his friend Henry has been killed.

Shortly after returning to Geneva with his father, Victor marries Elizabeth. He
fears the monster’s warning and suspects that he will be murdered on his
wedding night. To be cautious, he sends Elizabeth away to wait for him. While
he awaits the monster, he hears Elizabeth scream and realizes that the monster
had been hinting at killing his new bride, not himself. Victor returns home to his
father, who dies of grief a short time later. Victor vows to devote the rest of his
life to finding the monster and exacting his revenge, and he soon departs to
begin his quest.

Victor tracks the monster ever northward into the ice. In a dogsled chase, Victor
almost catches up with the monster, but the sea beneath them swells and the
ice breaks, leaving an unbridgeable gap between them. At this point, Walton
encounters Victor, and the narrative catches up to the time of Walton’s fourth
letter to his sister.

Walton tells the remainder of the story in another series of letters to his sister.
Victor, already ill when the two men meet, worsens and dies shortly thereafter.
When Walton returns, several days later, to the room in which the body lies, he
is startled to see the monster weeping over Victor. The monster tells Walton of
his immense solitude, suffering, hatred, and remorse. He asserts that now that
his creator has died, he too can end his suffering. The monster then departs for
the northernmost ice to
die.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The monster has taught himself to read and understand language so that he
can follow the lives of his "adopted" family, the De Laceys. While the monster
wanders the woods, he comes upon a jacket with a notebook and letters that
were lost by Victor. From the notes, the monster learns of his creation. He has
endured rejection by mankind, but he has not retaliated upon mankind in
general for his misfortune. Instead, he has decided to take revenge on his
creator's family to avenge the injury and sorrow he endures from others.

Victor refuses to make a second monster, but is convinced when the monster
assures Victor that he will leave Europe and move to South America. Victor
agrees to begin work on a second creation and makes plans to go to England
and Scotland, with Henry Clerval, to begin his secret work. Before he leaves
Geneva, Victor agrees to marry Elizabeth immediately upon his return from the
British Isles. Victor takes up residence in the Orkney Islands, off the coast of
Scotland. Victor destroys his project and goes out to sea to dispose of the
remains. The monster vows revenge on Victor not upholding his end of their
bargain.

While at sea, Victor's boat is blown off course by a sudden storm, and he ends
up in Ireland. Henry Clerval's body has washed up on the shores of Ireland, and
Victor is set to stand trial for murder. Fortunately, Mr. Kirwin, a local magistrate,
intercedes on Victor's behalf and pleads his case before a court, which then
finds Victor innocent of the crime. Victor is miserable knowing he has caused
the deaths of so many, but recovers enough to finalize the plans for his
marriage to Elizabeth.

With a wedding date set, Victor torments himself with the thought of the
monster's threat to be with him on his wedding night. The wedding goes off as
planned. While Victor makes sure he covers all possible entrances that the
monster could use to get into the wedding chamber, the monster steals into
Elizabeth's room and strangles her.

Victor now wants revenge and chases the monster through Europe and Russia.
Victor nearly catches the monster near the Arctic Circle when Robert Walton
discovers him. Victor, now near death, is taken aboard Walton's ship to recover
from exhaustion and exposure.
The monster appears out of the mists and ice to visit his foe one last time. The
monster enters the cabin of the ship and tells Walton his side of the story. Victor
dies, and the monster tells Walton that he will burn his own funeral pyre. The
monster then disappears in the waves and darkness, never to be seen again.