When Lord and Lady Willoughby are obliged to travel overseas, Bonnie (Emily Hudson) and her timid cousin Sylvia (Aleks Darowska) are left in the care of Slighcarp (Stephanie Beacham), their sinister new governess. She dismisses all the servants, except James (Richard O’Brien) and Pattern (Jane Horrocks), who are entirely at her beck and call as she attempts to steal the family estate.