The reader is taken into an isolated grey stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast with these lines, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the terrible events that occurred as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she scarcely knew. For there were phantoms of a time gone but not forgotten in every part of the vast house, a past devotedly preserved by Mrs. Danvers, the malevolent housekeeper: a suite pristine and unspoiled, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current residents. The second Mrs. de Winter travelled in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, intent on uncovering the deepest secrets and shattering the most terrifying illusions.