If beautiful, orphaned Emily St. Aubert is to resist the predatory demands of her new guardian, the inscrutable Signor Montoni, she must quell the superstitious imaginings that pervade her mind. Within the sombre walls of Montoni's medieval castle the boundaries of real and imagined terrors are blurred as Emily is drawn into a Gothic web of mystery and intrigue which threaten her not only with the loss of inheritance but also identity.

This is perhaps the most famous Gothic novel from the 18th-century. It was the object of Jane Austin's satire in "Northanger Abbey", but had made Mrs Radcliffe famous as the great enchanter and one of the most popular female novelists of her day. It is the novel that set the tone for horror fiction, with its decayed castles, trap doors and ghostly portents.