On his way from Chicago to start a doctoral program at Imperial College in London, Nick Hudson, at his mother's insistence, takes a detour to spend Christmas with his estranged Uncle Joshua at the bleak Mereton Grange deep in the English countryside. The cheerless house is forbidding and the outlook is made worse by the dark, wet winter weather. Escaping from the dreary house to the local pub, The Hanged Man, only adds to his sense of foreboding as the locals reveal tales of a dark past at the Grange with rumors of it being haunted. During the days around Christmas, Nick discovers the rumors to be true.