In an old rickety building on the rock above an old grass-grown square in the city of Polchester live three old ladies. The house was a windy, creaky, rain-bitten place where tthe ladies lived as tenants. One of the tenants, Miss Beringer, has a rather nervous personality but is befriended by a kindly neighbour named Mrs. Amorest. Soon, however, she meets the third tenant, a strange woman who takes an interest in her one treasured possession, an amber...