The novel is set shortly after the Second World War, in Warwickshire. It is narrated by Dr Faraday, a solid, quite sympathetic character who has come up from being a shopkeeper’s son, but as with these things, is not quite comfortable with his station in life. He falls in with the Ayres, the increasingly impoverished and grief-stricken family who occupy their ancestral home, Hundreds Hall, a large country house around which most of the action of the novel takes place.
Dr. Faraday becomes good friend with Mrs. Ayres and her daughter Caroline. The son Roderick is confined to a mental hospital after his room catches fire and everyone is sure he started it but Roderick believes it is a ghost. A young child is mauled by Caroline's previously gently dog and is destroyed by Dr. Faraday. Mrs Ayres and Caroline find childish writing on the walls and the servants bells ring even after being disconnected. Mrs Ayres feels it is her deceased daughter Susan whom is haunting the mansion. Dr. Faraday then wants Caroline to commit her mother to a mental hospital and marry him so they can be together in Hundreds Hall.
Dr. Faraday becomes good friend with Mrs. Ayres and her daughter Caroline. The son Roderick is confined to a mental hospital after his room catches fire and everyone is sure he started it but Roderick believes it is a ghost. A young child is mauled by Caroline's previously gently dog and is destroyed by Dr. Faraday. Mrs Ayres and Caroline find childish writing on the walls and the servants bells ring even after being disconnected. Mrs Ayres feels it is her deceased daughter Susan whom is haunting the mansion. Dr. Faraday then wants Caroline to commit her mother to a mental hospital and marry him so they can be together in Hundreds Hall.