Maud, the young heiress to a fortune, is romantically obsessed by the youthful Byronic painting of her uncle Silas. The arrival of a drunken, drug-addicted governess and an encounter with a brutish young man in a churchyard are the beginnings of a web of deception and terror.

After the death of her father, Maud goes to live with her guardian Uncle Silas but she refuses to believe the horrifying allegations about his involvement in a brutal murder. With the reappearance of two sinister figures from the past, fear and doubts begin.

With the reappearance of Madame de la Rougierre, Maud is torn between trust in Uncle Silas and mounting suspicion about a plot on her life. Alone and virtually a prisoner in the grim house, Maud realises too late that she is caught in a lethal trap.