In a mid-19th century Essex country house, a young governess for two children becomes convinced that the house and grounds are haunted by ghosts and that the children are being possessed.

A special sideshow torture exhibit has the power, according to showman Dr Diabolo, to warn people of foreseeable evil. One by one, skeptics stand before the Fate Atropos to preview the greed and violence hiding behind their respectable façades.

A young woman is plagued by nightmares of her asylum-patient mother. Upon returning to her family home, the nightmares become real when she sees a strange woman pacing the halls.