The Innocents

The Innocents tells the story of a 20 year old inexperienced governess (Kerr). In the film she is called Miss Giddens but is unnamed in the source novella. She is hired by a callous socialite (Redgrave) to care for his niece and nephew in his country mansion, Bly House. He will continue to reside in London and stipulates that the whole responsibility for looking after the children is with her alone.

The gothic Bly House proves to have many dark secrets: the governess discovers that her predecessor, Miss Jessel, was having an affair with the valet Quint (Peter Wyngarde), and that each of them had died in bizarre circumstances. Thereafter, the governess starts seeing their apparitions in the house and grounds and comes to believe that the ghosts of Quint and his lover are attempting to possess the bodies of the children. The children and the housekeeper deny seeing the apparitions, but she is particularly suspicious of the boy Miles, who has been expelled from school.