Writer Corin Stratford meets up with an old college friend, Hardie Keir McMaster, in a countryside churchyard; the scribe is promptly commissioned by McMaster to update information for a series of hotel travel brochures, and Corin accepts this opportunity to tour the English countryside. During his travels, Corin pays a visit to another acquaintance, Anthony Wotton, who shares a house in the Cotswolds with his wife Celia and a shrewd but off-kilter spinster, Aunt Eglantine. Corin, while at the house, sees a thin, green-eyed young woman crossing the lawn. Her hair is fiery red on one side, the other half dark black, and this curious style reminds Corin of an unlikeable ex-girlfriend of McMaster's he was told about, a girl who sported the same unique hair. At Sunday dinner, the stranger--named Gloria Mundy--accepts a rather begrudging invitation but leaves in anger when bemused Aunt Eglantine tosses a piece of bread into Gloria's soup course, dousing her with her dinner.
From that point on, various bad luck befalls the group: a headmaster's wife, who laughed at Gloria's misfortune during the soup course, slips and falls on freshly buttered steps; Aunt Eglantine breaks her leg when a rickety staircase collapses under her; a painting depicting a probable ancestor of Gloria disappears; and Anthony and Celia fight heatedly as soon as the stranger takes her exit. But does she do so? Some time later, smoke from a ruined house on the Wottons' property brings the fire brigade, and inside is discovered a blackened body. The burnt face is unrecognizable, but strangely, red and black hair remains atop the corpse, and Anthony and Corin identify the body as that of witch-like Gloria Mundy.
As Dame Beatrice Bradley, who was initially consulted to examine the sanity of Aunt Eglantine, discovers, several motives soon present themselves. When McMaster sees Gloria Mundy's ghost haunting a London clothes shop, Dame Beatrice uses her knowledge of witchcraft and human psychology to seek out answers. As the situation resolves, fate steps in to ensure that Gloria Mundy is finally put to rest
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