John Russell, a composer from
New York City, is vacationing with his wife and daughter upstate when his car becomes stuck in snow. While he goes to a roadside phone booth to call for assistance, he witnesses his wife and daughter get struck and killed by an oncoming truck. The accident prompts him to move to
Seattle, where he rents a mansion from the agent of a local historical society, Claire Norman, who tells him that the property has been vacant for twelve years. Not long after moving in, John begins to experience unexplained phenomena, starting with a loud banging every morning. One night, he discovers all of the water taps turned on and sees the
apparition of a drowned boy in a bathtub. Soon after, a red stained-glass windowpane shatters as he is outside and, upon investigation, he finds a locked, boarded up door in a closet leading to a hidden attic bedroom. John takes a music box from the mantel and discovers it plays the exact piano tune he has just recorded downstairs. John and Claire investigate the history of the house, believing that the ghost is that of a young girl killed on its grounds in a traffic accident in 1909. John holds a
seance and overhears
the voice of the spirit on audio equipment, calling himself Joseph Carmichael. John discovers that Joseph Carmichael was a crippled and sickly six-year-old who was murdered in 1906 by his father Richard because he was unlikely to reach the age of 21, upon which he would have inherited an enormous fortune from his late maternal grandfather. To ensure the inheritance, Richard replaced the dead boy with one procured from a local orphanage and spirited him away to Europe under the pretense of seeking treatment for his condition. After years away, he returned with the boy when he was aged 18, claiming that he was cured. The grown "Joseph Carmichael" is now a prominent
U.S. Senator who is also a major patron of the historical society that owns the house where his adoptive father committed the murder. John's investigation leads him to a property built on land that was once owned by the Carmichael family, where he believes the body of the murdered boy, the real Joseph Carmichael, was dumped in a well. There, he finds the skeleton of a young child with his
christening medal. John attempts to speak to Senator Carmichael but is restrained. The Senator is disturbed to see the medal, as it is identical to the one in his possession given to him by his adoptive father. The society cancels John's lease on the house and fires Claire. Senator Carmichael sends Police Captain DeWitt to John's home in an attempt to intimidate him and retrieve the medal. John refuses, and when DeWitt leaves to obtain a search warrant, his vehicle mysteriously overturns, killing him. After DeWitt's death, Senator Carmichael agrees to meet with John; John tells him the story. Carmichael angrily berates John for accusing his adoptive father of murder. John leaves the skeleton's christening medal, along with the only copy of the seance recording. Claire goes to the house to find John and is chased by Joseph's wheelchair until she falls down the stairs. When John arrives the house begins to shake. He tries to appease Joseph's ghost but falls from the second floor as the ghost sets the house on fire. Simultaneously, Senator Carmichael compares the two medals, and, realizing the truth, falls into a trance staring at the portrait of his adoptive father. John witnesses the Senator's
astral body climbing the burning stairs to Joseph's room. Claire rescues John while Carmichael has a vision of the murder and suffers a fatal
heart attack. John and Claire see the Senator's body being loaded into the ambulance. The next morning, Joseph's burnt wheelchair sits amid the ruins of the mansion and his music box begins playing a lullaby. == Cast ==