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.

The adventures of Calamity the cow, who is bought by a farmer for his children, stolen by rustlers, and eventually wins a prize for her part in ridding the area of a gang of cattle thieves.