Eleanor is married to Dr Everett Gallinger. They had a young child together, who later dies. Everett brings home an abandoned orphan girl to replace their dead child but Eleanor is suffering from severe depression and ultimately drowns the child in an ice bath.
After being admitted to a mental asylum her doctor, Henry Cotton, pulls all her teeth out believing that “all mental disorders stem from disease and infection polluting the brain."
Later when Dr Cotton is visiting her at home, she puts rat poison in his soup, killing him.