When his brother disappears, Robert Manning pays a visit to the remote country house he was last heard from. While his host is outwardly welcoming - and his niece more demonstrably so - Manning detects a feeling of menace in the air with the legend of Lavinia Morley, Black Witch of Greymarsh, hanging over everything.

Scientist Doctor Who accidentally activates his new invention, the Tardis, a time machine disguised as a police telephone box. Who, his two granddaughters Barbara and Susan, and Barbara's boyfriend Ian are transported through time and space to the planet Skaro, where a peaceful race of Thals are under threat of nuclear attack from the planet's other inhabitants: the robotic mutant Daleks.