The narrator travels to her new governess position at Ensor House in an open phaeton. The driver, a servant of her new employer, Mr. Pounds, has smallpox scars and tells her only that his masters are better than previous ones he has served. During the ride, he pats her thigh. 

As she arrives at the imposing house, the narrator sees a stern woman watching her from an upstairs window and internally states that everyone in the house will be dead in three months. She is greeted by the housekeeper, Mrs. Able, a woman with a wandering eye who speaks in a low monotone. Mrs. Able shows the narrator to a small, plain room in the back of the house. When asked about Mr. Pounds, Mrs. Able hesitates slightly before calling him a “good master.” Alone in her room, the narrator waits to meet her employers.

The narrator dines with her new employers, Mr. and Mrs. Pounds, who sit at the far end of an extremely long table. Mrs. Pounds inquires about the narrator’s background, noting her father is a clergyman. Privately, the narrator indicates that the Reverend was really a replacement for her real father. Her mother, meanwhile, has been dead for ten years. 

Mrs. Pounds reveals that their previous governess disappeared without a trace. When the narrator says she is from a village called Hopefernon, Mrs. Pounds recalls it as the site where several murdered infants were discovered. When asked by Mr. Pounds, the narrator reveals her name is Winifred Notty. Mr. Pounds reveals his obsession with phrenology, the “science of the mind,” (14) and remarks that Winifred’s skull appears promising. 

Back in her room, Winifred remembers her childhood. Her mother lied about her father being dead. When Winifred’s mother married the Reverend, the Reverend insisted that they must not have children. Before sleeping, Winifred thinks she sees the Reverend’s silhouette in the dark, but it is only her trunk.

The next morning, Winifred contemplates the “Darkness” that resides within her, as first identified by the Reverend in reference to broken blood vessels in her eyelids. She resolves to get the Pounds family to like and remember her, then goes to the kitchen, where she finds an unshaved calf’s head. She whispers to it affectionately before biting its snout. When the cook catches her, Winifred deflects by making a joke about eating children. 

At breakfast, Mrs. Pounds tells Winifred she is responsible for the children’s souls and must style Drusilla’s hair plainly, like her own. Later, she meets her charges: Andrew and his elder sister, Drusilla. Andrew tries to intimidate Winifred, claiming the last governess was dismissed for being cross with him, but Drusilla clarifies that the woman left of her own accord because she could not stand them. Winifred tells the children to call her “Fred,” explaining that Fred is the name of the demon who lives inside her. 

Andrew and Drusilla then give Winifred a tour of the family portrait gallery, pointing out a painting of their Grandfather Pounds, who they say “loved entertaining children. Boys in particular” (28). They aspire to have their own portraits hung in the gallery someday.

That night, Andrew asks about Winifred’s first charges, and she recalls them as twin girls whose hands she used to bind to prevent self-abuse. To a mostly asleep Andrew, she recounts a tale of the twins suddenly dying. 

Drusilla asks why she left her previous posts, and Winifred says the children “went missing.” For Drusilla, she whispers a story about the girl’s future, predicting she will be locked in a yellow room by a husband with coarse hands, where she will bleed onto her childbed linen and be remembered by staff as “melancholy.” 

When both children are asleep, Winifred licks their fingertips. Later, she explores the dark house by candlelight and finds a hidden garret containing only a rusted tub. She then silently enters her employers’ separate bed-chambers. Mr. Pounds is snoring deeply, while Mrs. Pounds stirs in her sleep and mistakes Winifred for her mother.

Winifred takes Andrew and Drusilla for a walk on the estate. They discover a bird’s nest containing three eggs. Winifred identifies one as a cuckoo’s egg and explains that cuckoos are brood parasites whose chicks kill their nest-mates shortly after hatching. She then picks up one of the other eggs and crushes it in her hand. 

During the walk, Andrew mentions that his parents had 12 children in total, but 10 died. Soon after, the group finds a roe deer lying on the ground. When the animal moves, showing it is still alive, Winifred grabs a rock and brutally smashes its head until it is dead. She tells the horrified children that it was an act of mercy, as all living creatures are in pain. That day at lunch, the family is served venison pie.

A fortnight after her arrival, Winifred takes a first walk with Mr. Pounds, after which the walks become a weekly routine. During one walk, Mr. Pounds boasts about his children, and Winifred quietly mutters a question about their paternity before disguising it as a compliment. Afterward, she retrieves a blacksmith’s invoice he threw into the unlit hearth and adds it to her private collection of his discarded items. 

Mrs. Pounds grows resentful of the walks, observing them from an upstairs window. Her insecurity and paranoia intensify, and she commands the household servants to turn their backs whenever she passes if she is not looking her best. When Winifred tries to pay her a compliment, Mrs. Pounds becomes angry and accuses her of being dishonest.