 In late 19th century England, an inexperienced young woman (Kerr) becomes governess to a small orphan girl living in a lonely stately home occupied only by the child, a housekeeper and a small complement of servants. Her initial misgivings allayed by the child s angelic nature, her anxieties are once more aroused when the girl s brother, equally captivating, is sent home from boarding school for wickedness of some unspecified kind. Then eerie apparitions and inexplicable behaviour on the children s part cause her to wonder about the house s history, especially about the fate of the previous governess and the former valet, Peter Quint, and to fear for the children s souls and for her own sanity. Eventually convinced that there is an unnatural force at work, perverting the innocence of her charges, she sets out to secure the children s salvation by wresting them from its power. Though her struggle reaches a resolution, its real nature and its outcome ultimately remain ambiguous.