The lawyer, Mr Utterson, was a shy, quiet and serious man. Mr Utterson's best friend was Richard Enfield. They often took long walks together through the streets of London.
Once they walked through a clean, friendly street. However, there stood a dark, mysterious house. This house reminded Mr Enfield of a strange story. He was walking along the same street once, when a girl, who was running, suddenly crashed with a strange, small man in a corner. Then the man walked over the child's body and left her screaming. The child was not very hurt but Mr Enfield and a doctor who came to her house made the cruel man agree to pay some money to the child's family. The man who was called Mr Hyde brought a cheque, but his name was not written on it. As the family got the money, Mr.Enfield didn't mind about it.
Later at his home Utterson took out the will of his old friend Dr Jekyll, in which he said he wished to leave everything to Edward Hyde in case he died or disappeared. Now that Utterson knew something about Hyde the will worried him more than ever. He visited his friend Dr Lanyon, who was also friend of Henry Jekyll, but he didn't know Hyde either. Mr Utterson spent many hours in the street where Enfield had seen Hyde. Once he met him. Utterson thought that there was something evil in that man and he became worried about Dr Jekyll. Mr Utterson went to Jekyll's house and said to the Poole, the servant, that Hyde had walked in through the laboratory door.
A year later a servant girl saw how Hyde murdered an old man with a stick. A letter addressed to Utterson was found next to the dead body. A policeman brought the letter to the lawyer and later, at the office, Utterson recognized the body, he was Sir Danvers Carew. The policeman and him drove to Hyde's house but he wasn't there. Instead, they found a half of the stick, which had been broken during the murder. That same afternoon Mr Utterson visited Dr Jekyll, who had also heard of the murder. Jekyll had received a letter from Hyde that said Hyde had gone and Jekyll didn't need to worry about his own safety anymore. Later, Utterson found out that Jekyll might have written that letter, because the handwriting was similar to the handwriting of Jekyll's will.
Time passed and Mr Hyde hadn't appeared. Dr Jekyll was happy and invited friends to his house until, suddenly, on January 12th he refused to see any more visitors.
Days later Mr Utterson was invited to dinner by his friend Lanyon. This man was deadly ill. During the conversation Utterson mentioned Jekyll's name and Lanyon reacted angrily. He didn't want to know anything about Jekyll anymore.
The next day, Utterson wrote to Dr Jekyll. In his letter he asked him why Dr Lanyon and him were no longer friends and why had Jekyll refused to receive his friends in his house. Jekyll replied he might travel alone a long, dark way and that he would never meet Lanyon again. A week later Lanyon died.
After Lanyon's death, Utterson received a letter from him in which was written: "Not to be opened until the death or disappearance of Dr Henry Jekyll".
A week later Mr Utterson and Mr Enfield went for a walk. They passed through the narrow street and walked into the courtyard of Dr Jekyll's house. Jekyll sat at an open window. They talked to him and Jekyll was very friendly, but, suddenly, an expression of fear and horror came over his face. In the next second the window was closed with a bang.
One day in March Poole, Dr Jekyll's servant, visited Mr Utterson. He asked him to come to Jekyll's house because Jekyll had locked himself for more than a week in his laboratory. Poole also told Utterson that the voice, which came from the laboratory, was not Jekyll's one. So, they thought Dr Jekyll had been murdered. They thought that Mr Hyde had murdered Jekyll and was in the room. So they broke the laboratory door down with an axe. Inside lay the body of Edward Hyde, who had taken some poison.
Utterson found the new will of Dr Jekyll, in which the doctor had left everything to Gabriel John Utterson. As Utterson discovered that the will was written on that day, he thought Jekyll had left
it and ran away.
Then Utterson found another note from Jekyll in which he said Utterson should go home and read Lanyon's letter. This letter said that Dr Jekyll had begged Lanyon to fetch chemical powders, a small bottle and a book from Jekyll's laboratory to Lanyon's house. Lanyon did this and later Hyde came to his house. He drank the liquid and changed into Henry Jekyll. Since then Lanyon couldn't sleep and felt as if he had not long to live. Then Utterson read Jekyll's confession.
Jekyll wrote that he had two different personalities: the outside world saw a serious hard-working doctor, but there was also a fun-loving, young man. He wanted to find a drug that could give each side of his character its own separate face and body. So he mixed the liquid. In the beginning he enjoyed the strange new thoughts and passions, but as time passed Hyde became more and more evil and stronger than Dr Jekyll. He needed larger doses in order to stay in Jekyll's body. Eventually the chemicals he used where no longer prepared, and so Mr Hyde, who committed suicide, sent Jekyll off of his body.