A wealthy American widow and her daughter, Dolores, come over to England for a lengthy stay, and, looking for a furnished house, rent the fine old Tudor mansion known as Queen's Quadrangles. There are certain conditions attached to the tenancy: they have to keep one or two of the ancient servitors, and the Lady Rosamund stipulates that they shall allow her to remain in residence, nominally as their housekeeper. Strange rumors reach them of a tragedy that overhangs the place; there is talk of it being haunted, and a persistent tale of the house having been built with three courts, though it now only possesses two. Dolores sees the ghost that haunts the grounds, and follows it into the missing third court, and a friendship springs up betwixt her and the young, sad-featured "ghost" that begins the unraveling of a mystery.