The story is told in the first person by a man who has been advised by his doctor to take up residence by the sea. He and his wife are pretty close to invalids. They take their retinue of six servants and their children to their new house. The fun of this story is in the slow suspense Daddy builds up so skillfully and the very matter- of- fact way the story is told. The first sign something is wrong is when his wife, they have their own rooms, insists there was a stranger in her room. Soon the servants report seeing intruders. At first it is thought they are simply real people coming into the house as the sea coast area has a lot of smugglers and such who may just be trying to scare them out of the house so they can use it for their operations. Then he starts seeing spectral guests also. To make it all the strangers, his servants each describe encounters with people that he has seen in the house also. It is too much to be just dreams as people always first say about ghosts.