No, it was not a dream or delirium... In Martha’s room there really was a woman in black, wearing a hat and veil. It was dark, but the girl recognized her. On the day of their grandmother’s death, a lady in black came to their house in Warsaw. Martha was sure that it was this woman who brought misfortune then. And now in St. Petersburg, appearing in Martha’s bedroom at night, she conveyed greetings from her grandmother and burst out laughing with an eerie, sepulchral laugh. Martha fell into a deep faint... “Nerve disorder” - this is how her family reacted to the girl’s story about what happened. And only Martha’s friend Dima Kolychev, a law student, decided to understand this story. It is clear that it was not a ghost, but some person of flesh and blood who tried to scare Martha. But why?..