In 1937, during a seaside holiday along Cornwall’s rugged coast, Roderick "Rick" Fitzgerald, a London music critic and aspiring composer, and his sister Pamela Fitzgerald are drawn to Windward House, an abandoned seaside villa, and purchase it from Commander Beech for the modest sum of £1200. The couple’s initial romance with the house is tempered by the presence of Beech’s granddaughter, Stella Meredith, a bright 20-year-old who lives nearby in the town of Biddlecombe. Stella is deeply tied to Windward House, and the news of its sale unsettles her even though her mother, Mary Meredith, died years earlier by falling from a cliff. Beech forbids Stella to see Rick or to enter the house, but the young woman defies him, and Rick finds himself increasingly captivated by her.
From the moment they open the studio that lies within Windward House, a chill settles over the space, as if the walls themselves breathed with memory. Before dawn, Rick hears the sobs of an unseen woman, and Pamela waits with their loyal housekeeper, Lizzie Flynn, for Rick to return. Lizzie notices a peculiar draft along the stairs, and the Fitzgeralds’ cat refuses to go upstairs while their dog makes a frantic escape from the home. It is soon clear that Windward House is not just old; it is haunted.
Stella herself comes to Windward House for dinner and senses a presence that she does not fear. To her, however, the presence feels like a lullaby from her mother, a calming force that oddly comforts her. Yet a shadow falls again when Stella abruptly runs toward the cliff from which her mother died; Rick manages to snatch her just in time, though Stella herself does not remember the near catastrophe. As the town’s physician, Dr. Scott, and the Fitzgeralds investigate, they uncover a troubling history: Stella’s father, a painter, had an affair with his model, a Spanish gypsy named Carmel.
To soothe Stella, Rick arranges a séance, hoping to persuade her that her mother would want her to stay away from Windward House. Instead, the spirit grows bold, declaring that it is guarding Stella. Possession follows, and Stella begins to mutter in Spanish. Beech grows anxious about Stella’s renewed ties to the house and sends her to a sanatorium run by Miss Holloway. The Fitzgeralds visit, and Holloway reveals the tangled past: Mary discovered the affair and took Carmel to Paris, leaving Carmel there when she returned to England. Carmel later returned, abducted Stella as an infant from Windward House, and in a confrontation, pushed Mary to her death. Holloway also cared for Carmel, who eventually died of pneumonia, and Dr. Scott suspects Holloway may have hastened Carmel’s death.
When Beech falls gravely ill, Dr. Scott is called away, and the family learns Stella is at the sanatorium. Holloway tells them that Stella will be invited to live with the Fitzgeralds, and Stella returns to Windward House. There, Beech, weak but resolute, begs Stella to leave with him, but she remains. A ghost materializes, and Beech dies of a heart attack. At first, Stella welcomes the apparition as her mother, but the specter frightens her, and she flees toward the cliff.
Rick and Dr. Scott hurry to rescue Stella, and they turn to the physician’s journal, which the friendly spirit has opened to a specific page. They discover that Carmel gave birth to a child in Paris—where Stella was born—revealing Carmel as Stella’s mother. With this knowledge, Carmel’s spirit is freed to depart Windward, but an evil remains, lurking in the shadows of the house. After dismissing everyone, Rick confronts the spirit of Mary Meredith, declaring that they are no longer afraid of her power. The old fear dissolves as Mary’s spirit, defeated, finally departs.
This tale unfolds as a careful unraveling of family secrets, haunting memories, and the enduring pull of Windward House, where love, jealousy, and tragedy collide in a timeless seaside mystery.
