A young woman leaves her home to take up a job as a maid with her aunt at an elderly woman who the stableman describes as half alive, half ghost, and all mystery. The young woman is intrigued, terrified, but reassured by her stern aunt who puts everything and everyone in their place. Her sense of order and control seems to calm her, until strange noises come from the upstairs and her aunt scurries away to tend to the old woman’s needs. As the story unfolds, the mystery of the old woman is compounded by the old woman’s behaviour, and the mystery of the old woman’s life.