Blithe Spirit recap

Novelist Charles Condomine invites the flamboyant medium Madame Arcati to conduct a séance as research. Instead of merely providing material for his book, she summons the ghost of Charles's first wife, Elvira, visible and audible only to him. His second wife, Ruth, first thinks he is behaving irrationally and then accepts that Elvira is real. Elvira wants Charles to join her in death and tampers with his car, but Ruth drives it instead and is killed. Ruth returns as another ghost, leaving Charles trapped between two hostile wives while Madame Arcati tries to reverse the haunting. The medium identifies the maid Edith as the unwitting psychic link and performs another ritual. Charles believes both spirits have gone and leaves the house to travel, but the unseen Elvira and Ruth begin wrecking the room after his departure, proving that they remain behind.

Novelist Charles Condomine and his second wife, Ruth, prepare to entertain their friends Dr and Mrs Bradman and the medium Madame Arcati. Charles wants to study occult language and behavior for a novel, and neither he nor Ruth expects anything genuine. During the séance, Madame Arcati enters a trance and addresses her child spirit guide. The table moves and the medium collapses, but the guests believe the evening has otherwise failed. After everyone but the Condomines has gone, Charles sees and hears Elvira, his first wife, who has been dead for seven years. Ruth cannot perceive the visitor and initially assumes that Charles's replies to Elvira are insults directed at her. Elvira explains that she does not know how or why she returned. Charles is left trying to manage a ghost delighted by her new influence and a living wife who thinks his conduct inexplicable.

Charles's attempt to conceal Elvira fails as the ghost interferes with his marriage. Ruth comes to believe him after Elvira moves objects and supplies information known only to Charles's first wife. Madame Arcati returns but cannot simply dismiss the spirit she summoned. Elvira behaves as though Charles still belongs to her and makes little effort to hide her hostility toward Ruth. Ruth eventually discovers that Elvira has tampered with Charles's car and understands the plan: Elvira expects Charles to die in a crash and join her. Before Ruth can prevent the danger, she drives the car herself and is killed in the resulting accident. Charles survives, but Elvira's effort to secure him has instead removed Ruth from the living household.

After the accident, Ruth also returns as a ghost. Charles is now caught between two dead wives whose hostility extends to him and to each other. Madame Arcati conducts repeated rituals, but conventional efforts to send the spirits away do not work. She finally recognizes that Edith, the Condomines' excitable maid, possesses the psychic energy that enabled the original manifestation. With Edith's participation, Arcati appears to dematerialize Elvira and Ruth. Charles decides to escape the house immediately and travel by himself. He delivers a final rebuke to both wives and departs, believing he is free. Once he is gone, objects begin moving and the room is damaged by invisible hands. Elvira and Ruth have become unseen and unheard, not banished, and remain in the house after Charles leaves.

Madame Arcati concludes that Edith's unsuspected psychic ability supplied the force that brought Elvira into the house. Using Edith in another attempt, the medium appears to send both dead wives away. Charles, relieved to be free of the household struggle, decides to leave at once and travel alone. Before going, he speaks dismissively to Elvira and Ruth in case they can still hear him. His confidence is misplaced: after he departs, objects move and the room is damaged, showing that both ghosts remain present even though Charles can no longer see or hear them. He has escaped their immediate company, but the supernatural problem has not actually been solved.