The story is written in the first person PoV of our unnamed narrator who rents a large house in the country in order to recuperate. The house has the reputation of being haunted by a hooded woman who was murdered while an owl hooted. The narrator decides to reside there for six months, despite being warned not to. While his servants are convinced that the house is haunted, the narrator and his sister do not think so.
They invite some friends over to occupy the house and conduct a rational investigation to discover if the stories about the hooded lady and the owl and others are true.
In keeping with the writing of the time, the story is about a lot of unrelated things and contains several digressions before the subject of the haunted house is fully tackled.
There is a bit of humour with reference to how the servants of the house react to the incessant bell ringing and the ‘eyes’ they claim to have seen.
But the story, despite starting well, went off on a tangent, and there was nothing paranormal or supernatural about it.
Disappointing.