The Uninvited

In May 1937, two thirty-year-old Londoners, composer and music critic Roderick "Rick" Fitzgerald and his sister Pamela, spend a vacation on the coast of the Cornwall Peninsula. During one of their nature walks with Bobby the dog, they stumble upon an uninhabited house located on a sea cliff. Following Bobby, who is chasing a squirrel, they go inside the house, from which Pamela immediately becomes delighted. She persuades her brother to buy a house in a fold for permanent residence. Rick likes this idea, because in such a secluded place he will finally be able to compose music in peace.

The Fitzgeralds travel to the nearby town of Biddlecombe to meet with the owner of the house, Captain Beach, where they are met by his charming twenty-year-old granddaughter Stella Meredith, who claims that the house they are interested in, Windward House, is not for sale. However, Beach, who soon appeared, agrees to sell the house for an unexpectedly low price, warning the Fitzgeralds that tenants who lived there some time ago complained about oddities in the house. From a conversation with her grandfather, it becomes clear that Stella is very upset about the sale of the house, which is dear to her memories of her mother, who died there, but after her mother's death, Captain Beach forbade her to visit the house. On the way home, Rick walks into a tobacco shop, the owner of which tells him that seventeen years ago, Whip's daughter Mary Meredith died after falling off a cliff in front of her house.

Immediately after moving into a new house, Rick and Pamela begin to encounter oddities: the dog starts barking at someone for no reason, the scent of mimosa suddenly spreads through the house, and sometimes inexplicable waves of cold. They are especially concerned about the artist's workshop, where a bouquet of fresh flowers wilts in front of their eyes in a few seconds.

Soon after meeting Rick on the street, Stella apologizes for her behavior, after which he decides to invite the girl for a boat trip. During the voyage, Stella tells Rick about her mother Mary Meredith, who used mimosa-scented perfume and lived in the house for three years after Stella was born. Before leaving for London, Rick asks Stella to visit Pamela in Windward.

When Rick returns from London with housewife Lizzie Flynn, it turns out that Bobby ran away from home, and Beach did not allow Stella to take advantage of Pamela's invitation to tea. That night, Rick wakes up to the sounds of a sobbing woman, and Pamela, who got up, says that she often hears this crying before dawn.

Despite her grandfather's resistance, Stella accepts Rick's invitation to come to Windward for lunch. After a tense conversation with his granddaughter, Beach arranges by phone to meet with Miss Holloway, formerly his daughter's closest friend, who now runs a psychiatric hospital (sanatorium) named after Mary Meredith.

That evening, in the workshop on the top floor of Windward House, Rick performs the serenade "Stella in the Starlight" written for Stella. Stella is delighted with Rick's music, but when candles suddenly begin to flicker and the scent of mimosa is felt, something happens to her. She takes off and runs in the direction of the cliff from which her mother fell. Rick rushes after Stella and manages to grab her on the very edge of the cliff a moment before she falls down. At this moment, Lizzie screams, who then tells that she saw a woman standing in the doorway of the workshop. Stella enters the workshop alone, and some time later Rick discovers that she is lying on the floor unconscious. Rick and Pamela send for the local doctor Scott, who helps Stella recover from the shock and offers her to stay in the house for the night.

Dr. Scott, who had previously found and sheltered the runaway Bobby, also stays in the house overnight. Sitting in the living room, Scott tells Pamela and Rick what he knows about the history of Windward House: Mary Meredith's husband was an artist, he fell in love with his model, the Spanish gypsy Carmel. When their relationship began to take a scandalous turn, Carmel was sent to Paris. The Merediths escorted her there and returned from Europe with a newborn baby– Stella. Soon after, Carmel came back to Windward. She died of pneumonia a week after Mary Meredith fell off a cliff while trying to save Carmel from suicide. Before dawn, Pamela, Rick and Scott suddenly feel the scent of mimosa and see Stella get up from the bed, who claims that she felt the presence of her mother.

Some time later, Rick tries to persuade Stella to move to London with him, but Stella is convinced that her mother wants to see her in Windward. Rick then decides to free Stella from Windward's spell by simulating a seance in which Stella's "mother" will tell her to stay away from home. However, during the session, they establish a connection with a real ghost, who transmits a message that he is guarding Stella and his name is Carmel. After the glass tumbler flies off the table and breaks, Stella enters a trance, during which she speaks fluent Spanish, while the aroma of mimosa fills the unexpectedly cooled room.

Beach, who has returned from a trip to Miss Holloway, bursts into Winward House, and, seeing what is happening, takes Stella home, at the same time refusing Scott's services as a doctor. When Stella regains consciousness, Beach sends the girl to a sanatorium under the care of Miss Holloway.

Rick becomes convinced that Stella will not recover until the house is free of ghosts, and decides to find out all the circumstances of her mother's death. After learning about Miss Holloway from the gardener, Rick and Pamela go to meet her at the sanatorium, unaware that Stella is already there. Holloway tells them his version of Meredith's story: Mary was an outstanding person who sent Carmel to Paris and made sure she got a good job there, but Carmel returned to fight off Mary's husband. One stormy night, desperate to hurt the Merediths, Carmel took three-year-old Stella and ran with her to the cliff. When Mary got into a fight with her, Carmel pushed her off the edge down, then disappeared and soon returned with pneumonia. Although Holloway took care of her, Carmel died anyway.

Returning to Biddlecombe, Pamela and Rick, along with Dr. Scott, find the medical archive of a doctor who worked in the town at that time. From the journal entries, it becomes clear that the doctor suspected Holloway of criminal negligence in the case of Carmel's death. When Scott is informed that Beach has had a heart attack, he urgently leaves, leaving the magazine to the Fitzgeralds. Scott learns from Whip that Stella has been placed in Miss Holloway's sanatorium. When Scott informs Fitzjealdamm about this, Pamela calls Miss Holloway and makes an appointment that evening.

Stella feels that she was actually imprisoned in the sanatorium, and this causes her resentment and indignation. After Pamela's call, Holloway calls Stella and tells her that the Fitzgeralds have invited her to live in their house. A joyful Stella immediately leaves by train for Windward. When the Fitzgeralds and Scott arrive at the sanatorium, Holloway, coming into an absolutely insane state, tells them that Stella will soon follow her mother off the cliff according to Mary's wishes, and they will not have time to stop her. The Fitzgeralds go back to Windward, but Stella arrives earlier and finds herself in an empty house with no one but a seriously ill grandfather. Whip begs her to leave the house, because it is dangerous to be in it, but loses consciousness when the vague appearance of Mary Meredith appears in the doorway of the workshop. Stella at first happily accepts the ghost, thinking that it is her mother, but when the ghost scares her, she screams and runs out of the house, heading for the cliff again. Just at this moment, the Fitzgeralds drive up to the house. Stella runs to the very edge, the ground goes out from under her feet and she falls, but at the last moment Rick grabs her hand and saves her.

They return to the living room, where Dr. Scott is reading a medical journal, from which it becomes clear that Carmel was pregnant. Further, it also turns out that Mary asked the doctor to keep Carmel's pregnancy a secret, and that the doctor, knowing that Mary was afraid of becoming a mother and refused to give birth to a child, assumed that she intended to take Carmel's child and raise it as her own. Rick suggests that the Merediths sent Carmel to Paris on the condition that she would never come back, and adopted Stella, but that Carmel could not live without her child. Stella remembers her father saying that her mother always used mimosa-scented perfume. At the time she thought it was about Mary, but now she realized that her mother was actually Carmel.

When Rick opens the doors to the workshop, he feels the cold, evil presence of a ghost. He asks everyone to go outside, and then comes into contact with the spirit of Mary Meredith and tells her that he is no longer afraid of her and she no longer has power over him. After these words, Mary's defeated evil spirit disappears forever. Realizing that her daughter is now safe, Carmel's ghost also disappears, leaving behind only a light scent of mimosa.

After the ghosts have left the house, Dr. Scott and Pamela decide to get married, and Rick tells Stella that it made him feel better that Mary Meredith could not become his mother-in-law.