A young aristocrat, an orphan, forced to earn her livelihood by hired labor, receives a position as a governess on a rich estate. The huge gloomy house where she will live and work is full of superstitions, terrible secrets and mysterious phenomena. But the governess’s greatest interest, and sometimes the greatest horror, is the owner of the estate - a young widower, a misanthrope, a mysterious, sinister, but well-mannered and extremely elegant man, who is destined to become her destiny...