 Clifford Swimmer is an angry and abusive man, unhappy in his marriage and cruel to his wife and son, and he wants out. He finds a unique solution: he will have himself cloned and will replace himself while he goes about the world "a free man." With the help of a scientist doing cloning research, the replacement of Swimmer is created. The clone takes over as head of the family, while the real Swimmer travels the world. Meanwhile, the clone has turned out to be the opposite of the original -- a gentle and sensitive husband and father -- and the wife and son come to love him. Then the real Swimmer comes back, finds his family happy with the clone, and becomes angry and jealous. And things take a deadly turn.