Caroline Fielding, who is Charlotte's mother, is married to Joshua, her second husband and an actor.
The couple travel to Whitby where the Netheridges expect them. Joshua's company of actors, which include Vincent Singer, Lydia Rye, and married couple James Hobbs and Mercy Carstairs, will also be there. The plan is to help Charles Netheridge's daughter, Alice, who has written a play based on the novel Dracula and wants to show it to her neighbours on Boxing Day. The thing is that if they do this, Mr Netheridge will help the company financially when they return to London.
Alice is a nice young woman and is engaged to Douglas Paterson, who does not approve of his fiancée to engage in this type of activity. From the first, it is clear that Alice's version is not good and needs modifications, which Joshua is willing to do. The weather is terrible; it is windy and snowing heavily, and they fear that they will be snowed in for days, and the only people who will see the play are the servants. Then a person appears unexpectedly at the door who claims that his carriage has broken down and he needs help. His name is Anton Ballin, and the Netheridges don't hesitate to open their house for him. Ballin soon joins the actors and he has good ideas and an excellent vision of what the play needs, and little by little these changes make the play better. There are tensions as Ballin is seen as an intruder. Alice seems to like him, but her fiancée is openly hostile. Douglas seems to enjoy Lydia's company, and Caroline can tell that the young actress is trying to get the man, and Alice doesn't seem to mind. There is an episode in which there is a scream. It is Mercy Cairns, and when everybody rushes to her, she explains that she was walking to the theatre in the house when she was startled by this man's presence. I don't know if this is true or not, but I think there is more there than meets the eye.
When they play is almost ready and just needs rehearsals, one night Caroline remembers she left something in the theatre. As she walks in the dark corridors, she trips over something. It is the body of Anton Ballin, who has been murdered. The broken-off shaft of a broom is protruding from his chest in the same way as vampires are said to be killed. There is no way they can call a doctor or the police as the snow makes it impossible for anybody to leave the house. When Charles Netheridge suggests they move the body, she passionately says that they can't do that as they will be tampering with evidence.. So they decide to leave the body there and lock the door.
The interesting thing is that nobody knows nothing about Ballin. Caroline and Joshua think that the murderer must be found among the Netheridges because after all, Balling came here, and nobody knew that he and his company will be performing here. But maybe he is wrong.
Now that the murder has taken place, it is getting interesting. I have to say that a big chunk of the novella was about all the modifications to the play, which was becoming too tedious, and I thought that it was going to be like this until the end. Thankfully, now something has happened.
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