Plot Overview

In the original story published by Collier’s Magazine, The Turn of the Screw follows the story of a young governess who is hired by a wealthy man to care for his niece and nephew, of whom he explicitly has no interest in knowing or caring for in any capacity.

The governess takes on her role at a sprawling manor estate in Bly, Essex, caring for the young girl Flora, and her brother Miles, who is expelled from his boarding school under abnormal and unspoken circumstances. During her tenure, the children exhibited charming yet bizarre behavior. The governess begins to see the apparitions of a man and a woman whom she does not recognize as part of the staff, and she later discovers that they are the figures of Peter Quint, a lecherous former groundskeeper, and of Miss Jessel, her predecessor as caregiver. The pair are revealed to have been involved with one another under sordid circumstances, and to have died shortly before the governess’ tenure, by drunken accident and possible suicide, respectively.

The governess comes under the crushing belief that the specters are not only visible to and interacting with the children but intend to possess their bodies and take over their living forms entirely. This fear and her efforts to protect the children result in confrontations with both of her wards, resulting in Flora’s removal from the manor, and the death of Miles.