Jo Gilkes (Jane Wymark) is expecting a baby. She and her overbearing husband, Peter (Simon MacCorkindale), just moved to the country. Peter is a veterinarian and, tired of working in the city for pampered pets, decided he wanted to work as a country vet. Peter now works with Dick Pummery (T. P. McKenna) taking care of farm animals.
Jo’s cat, Mudslinger, had been housed with her father until after the move and they were settled in. Then Jo had her father send him on the train where she picked him up at the station. When she arrived home with him the cat began to caterwaul. As soon as she opened the travel case he took off. He ran out of the house and into the nearby woods. Peter assures her that he will come back as soon as he gets hungry. He never returns.
The Gilkes bought a farmhouse and began doing some renovations. They hired a couple handymen, Stan Biddick (Norman Jones) and Arthur Grace (Mark Dignam). Stan was working on removing a wall to open up the kitchen. Peter is not happy with the pace of the demolition. After Stan leaves, Peter begins hacking at the wall. He finds a hollow spot containing a large jar. When he and Jo pry open the jar, they find it contains a mummified creature. It has hair but its features are undefined. It looks as if it were a large fetus of some animal. Peter has never seen anything like it and becomes fascinated with it. Jo, on the other hand is grossed out and somewhat frightened of it.
Peter decides to show it to Dick to get his opinion of it. Dick is also fascinated by it and wants to do an autopsy. Jo just wants it out of the house. Later handymen Stan and Arthur get a look at it. Arthur starts relating superstitious lore about items like that being walled up in a house to put a curse on the house and land. The discovery of the creature and Arthur’s talk of curses sparks Jo’s imagination and fears, but is there some truth behind the lore?
As with the other stories in “Beasts” the main focus is a bully who has no regard for others. In this case it is Peter who bullies his wife, Jo. Jo is impressionable due to her pregnancy. She takes in all of Arthur’s talk about curses. In conjunction with a mummified creature that looks like a baby everything begins to play on her subconscious. What adds to Jo’s barely controlled hysteria is that she’s already had a miscarriage once before. It is only mentioned in passing but that fact is enough to subliminally work on anyone.
The only problem with this story is the ending. It’s a little unclear if what Jo is seeing is real or if she is imagining it due to her heightened sensitivity and near hysteria.