it is the afternoon of Miss Cordell's funeral. She was a malevolent old woman, disliked by all. Behind drawn blinds Miss Simpson, her paid companion for eight years, detains the servant Bessie in conversation. Both have the feeling that their dead employer haunts the adjoining bedroom. Miss Cordell's three nieces return from the funeral. The will is read and the three rejoice in the large fortune they are to share. However, manifestations of an unseen presence affect them all. Harriet, the most sensible of the three, lingers on for a talk with Miss Simpson. And harriet sympathizes with the long-suffering woman who had experienced years of tyranny and also - incidentally - allows Miss Simpson to be aware that she, Harriet, is quite alive to the fact that Miss Simpson is guilty of having poisoned Miss Cordell. A situation that Harriet does not allow to pass without turning it to her own advantage. The two leave the eerie house as friends.