Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a fictional story about a man who explains how he first discovered that he had a disease that sharpened his sense of hearing. The narrator explains that he once knew an old man whom he loved as a person, but hated for the appearance of his eye. The narrator murders the old man so that he would never have to see the hideous eye again, but hears the heartbeat of his own guilt and confesses the truth to three policemen.

Part 1.