The master of the house, an inhuman presence with bones visible through his skin, paces at the garden wall. A mouse squirms through the rocks in the wall, dislodging a small stone. The master replaces the stone and takes the mouse in his hand, turning it to ash.

Olivia Prior, a girl who does not speak, lives at the Merilance School for Independent Girls. She flees to a garden shed on school grounds after being mocked by her classmates for her disability. The shed is feared by the other girls who sense the presence of a ghost-like figure—a “ghoul”—that is visible only to Olivia. In the shed, Olivia fantasizes about having a home that isn’t Merilance: perhaps the home that belonged to her dead mother, whom Olivia is only connected to through the rambling journal she left behind. Olivia is found in the shed by a matron who punishes her for running away by denying her dinner. Olivia sneaks into the matrons’ quarters while the other girls eat and steals some of the desserts they keep there.