Walter Hartright's chance midnight encounter with a mysterious woman in white is to change his life. When he takes up his duties as drawing teacher to the beautiful Laura Fairlie, he sees in her face an eerie reflection of the forlorn creature he met on the London road. What is the secret that connects the woman in white with Laura and her fiance, the sinister Sir Percival Glyde? And is Sir Percival's charming acquaintance Count Fosco, with his taste for white mice, vanilla bonbons and poison, friend or foe?