The Woman in Black recap

London solicitor Arthur Kipps travels to the remote town of Crythin Gifford to settle the papers of Alice Drablow, who lived at Eel Marsh House beyond a tidal causeway. At her funeral and near the house he sees a gaunt woman dressed in black whom the townspeople fear. Alone in the house, Arthur hears an unseen pony and trap sink in the marsh and finds a nursery that seems occupied by a hostile presence. Letters reveal that Mrs Drablow adopted her sister Jennet Humfrye's son, Nathaniel, who later drowned with his nurse and driver on the causeway while Jennet watched helplessly. Jennet died consumed by grief and returned as the woman in black; a child dies whenever she is seen. Arthur escapes and believes the haunting is behind him. Years later the apparition frightens a pony pulling Arthur's wife Stella and their young son Joseph. Joseph is killed, Stella later dies, and Arthur is left to carry the story into old age.

On Christmas Eve, the older Arthur Kipps listens as his stepchildren entertain the family with ghost stories. Asked to contribute, he reacts with distress and leaves the room. He resolves instead to write down the true experience that has haunted him for years. As a young solicitor in London, eager to prove himself and soon to marry Stella, Arthur is sent by his employer, Mr Bentley, to attend the funeral of a client named Alice Drablow and organize the papers in her isolated house. Mr Bentley is evasive about the assignment, but Arthur treats it as ordinary legal work and prepares to travel north.

Arthur travels through thick London fog and then by train toward the market town of Crythin Gifford. He shares the later part of the journey with Samuel Daily, a wealthy and friendly local landowner who offers his assistance. The warm welcome at Arthur's inn contrasts with the unease that greets any mention of Mrs Drablow or Eel Marsh House. At the sparse funeral, Arthur sees a gaunt young woman in old-fashioned black standing apart in the churchyard. Mr Jerome, the local agent, is horrified when Arthur points her out and insists that nobody was there. Arthur is puzzled by the town's silence but remains determined to complete his work.

Keckwick drives Arthur across the Nine Lives Causeway to Eel Marsh House, which stands amid marshland and is cut off when the tide covers the road. Inside, Arthur begins sorting Mrs Drablow's disorderly papers. Outside he again sees the woman in black, this time near a ruined burial ground. Later he hears the sounds of a pony and trap in difficulty in the fog, followed by the cries of a child and a woman, but cannot reach whoever seems to be drowning in the marsh. The sounds recur though no living travelers are present. When Keckwick returns after the tide changes, Arthur leaves shaken by an experience his rational explanations cannot contain.

Arthur asks Mr Jerome to accompany him back to Eel Marsh House, but the frightened agent refuses and says nobody local will go. Samuel Daily, still skeptical in his manner but concerned for Arthur, lends him his dog Spider for company. Arthur returns across the causeway and works in the house, where a locked room draws his attention. He eventually enters and discovers a preserved nursery with a rocking chair that moves without anyone touching it. The house's ordinary domestic objects make its hostile atmosphere more disturbing, while Spider reacts to sounds and presences Arthur cannot locate.

During another frightening episode, Arthur follows Spider into the fog and nearly loses her in the treacherous marsh before pulling her free. The phantom pony-and-trap disaster sounds again, and the nursery is violently disturbed. Among Mrs Drablow's papers Arthur finds letters from Jennet Humfrye, Alice's unmarried sister. They show that Jennet's son Nathaniel was taken in and legally adopted by Alice and her husband, though Jennet remained attached to him. Death certificates and other records reveal that Nathaniel, his nurse, and their driver drowned when their pony and trap sank off the causeway. Jennet witnessed the accident and was powerless to save her child. Her grief and anger were directed at Alice, and she later died after years of decline.

Arthur is overwhelmed by the haunting and is taken from Eel Marsh House after collapsing. Samuel Daily explains the truth the townspeople avoided: Jennet Humfrye became the woman in black, and every sighting of her has been followed by the death of a child. Arthur returns to London and, after a long recovery, marries Stella. He believes distance and time have ended the woman's hold on him. Years later, while Stella and their young son Joseph ride in a pony and trap at a park, Arthur sees the woman in black step deliberately before the horse. The trap crashes into a tree. Joseph dies immediately, and Stella dies months later from her injuries. The older Arthur has at last told the Christmas ghost story he could not speak aloud: the apparition's vengeance reached beyond the marsh and destroyed his family.

Arthur survives his ordeal at Eel Marsh House and learns that the apparition is Jennet Humfrye, whose son Nathaniel was raised by her sister Alice Drablow and drowned in the marsh after a pony-and-trap accident. Jennet's rage endured after death: whenever the woman in black is seen, a local child subsequently dies. Arthur returns to London and gradually recovers. He marries his fiancée Stella, and they have a son, Joseph. Years later, at a park, Arthur watches Stella and Joseph ride in a pony and trap. The woman in black appears before the pony, deliberately causing it to bolt and crash. Joseph dies at the scene, and Stella later dies from her injuries. The older Arthur's Christmas listeners do not know that his ghost story is the history of how the apparition destroyed his first family. Having written it down, he hopes he can finally set the memory aside.