The story tells of British novelist Paul Oleron, who lives restlessly in cramped quarters, looking -- as writers do -- for some way not to work on the project at hand. That is when he sees a vast and beautiful old house for rent. He takes the first floor and moves in. When his friend Elsie Benbough comes to visit, weirdness begins. The house, it seems, does not like Elsie and begins to inflict minor but mean-spirited injuries upon her. Feeling the presence of something evil, she warns Oleron that he will never be able to work there. But Oleron is entranced . . . and then in love . . . and soon obsessed. . . .