Prefatory frame
The novel is presented as a framed narrative: at a country house a man named Douglas promises a circle a ghost-story he has never before told. He reads from a faded manuscript sent him years earlier by a deceased woman — the manuscript is the core narrative and is transcribed by the frame narrator. The tale that follows is the governess’s first-person account of her employment at Bly.

Set-up and persons
A young, inexperienced governess is engaged by a handsome, absent bachelor guardian to take charge of two children at his country seat, Bly: Flora, a gentle little girl, and her elder brother Miles, a singularly beautiful and clever boy. The house is run by Mrs. Grose, a simple, loyal housekeeper. The guardian imposes one strict condition: the governess must manage the children entirely on her own and not trouble him.

Background complications
The estate’s recent past is troubled. A previous governess, Miss Jessel, has died after an episode that Mrs. Grose hints was disgraceful; the master’s former valet, Peter Quint, is also dead, having fallen on an icy road months earlier amid rumours of vice. Miles has been abruptly dismissed from school for unspecified serious misconduct; a curt letter from the headmaster precipitates unease.

Manifestations and growing conviction
The new governess’s early days are enchanted by the children’s beauty and docility, but she soon observes uncanny phenomena. She twice sees a strange, hatless man with vivid red hair — she identifies him later as Quint — watching her from high points of the house. Later, by the lake, she sees a pale, beautiful woman in black whom she associates with Miss Jessel. Crucially, on two occasions the governess believes the children themselves have seen these figures: Flora by the lake and Miles at night. The governess comes to the conviction that the dead pair are appearing to the children with malign intent, that the children are being influenced or claimed by them.

Response and escalation
Mrs. Grose initially disbelieves or refuses to speak, but gradually admits prior knowledge of the improper intimacy between Quint and Miss Jessel and of Quint’s damaging influence. The governess resolves to protect the children: she contemplates summoning the guardian, isolates the youngsters, and even has Mrs. Grose take Flora away to the uncle in London. A letter the governess writes to the guardian disappears — later Miles admits he took and burned it.

Ambiguity and crisis
The governess seeks a confession from Miles. He sometimes lies, sometimes avows petty mischiefs; he insists he did not steal, though he once “said things” at school that led to his expulsion. The narrative climaxes when the governess confronts Miles while a hideous white face — the apparition of Quint — looms at the window; she shields Miles, believing she has thereby preserved him, but at the end Miles collapses in her arms. The manuscript breaks off with this traumatic moment.

Major themes and interpretive problem
The narrative is tightly ambiguous: it stages classical Gothic motifs (haunted house, revenants, sexual transgression) while fixing attention on the governess’s perceptions, anxieties, and zeal. The tension between a literal supernatural reading and psychological explanations (repression, hysteria, unreliable narration) is central. The frame complicates authority further: Douglas’s theatrical introduction and the provenance of the manuscript invite questions about mediation, memory and the ethics of telling.