Arthur Kipps is sent to attend the funeral of the reclusive Alice Drablow and to sort out some matters in her house. When he comes to her home town, he is surprised to find that all of the inhabitants shudder or fall silent at any mention of Eel Marsh House, the house where Mrs Drablow had lived. On attending the funeral, Arthur catches sight of a woman dressed entirely in black and has a pale, wasted face. When he asks his guide Samuel Daly about her, he claims to have not seen her.
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Arthur is then taken to Eel Marsh House, where he sees the woman in black again in a graveyard, but again she disappears. As he looks through old letters and receipts of Mrs Drablow, he finds some letters from her to a woman called Jennet Humphrey, who had apparently given her illegitimate son to Mrs Drablow to look after for her. He soon finds out that Jennet was forbidden by Mrs Drablow to see her son again, and that one day her son drowned in the marsh whilst returning home.
After a much more frightening appearance from the mysterious woman in the house, Samuel tells Arthur that the woman in black is the ghost of Jennet Humphrey seeking revenge, and that she would kill the child of anyone who sees her.
The review of this Book prepared by Liza Rosette
