Drawing instructor Walter Hartwright (Gig Young) is en route to the castle of Count Fairlie when he briefly meets a distraught woman dressed entirely in white (Eleanor Parker). Upon reaching his destination, he's shocked to discover that the girl he is to teach, Fairlie's niece Marian (Alexis Smith), is the spitting image of the woman he met. Even more strangely, house guest Count Fosco (Sydney Greenstreet) seems to know something about the lady in white that he's not telling.