Having squandered his wealth, Guido returns to claim the hand of the celestial Juliet, but finds himself censured by her father. Petulant at his chastisement, his Byronic temperament gets the better of him: he is punished with banishment. Plotting his revenge, he witnesses a mighty tempest, and from the raging sea emerges a strange figure. Initially repelled by the dwarfish form before him, the true horror soon strikes him: he and the dwarf are one. As their identities become increasingly merged, 'Transformation' takes its place in the history of Doppelganger literature.