Amityville-like doings in a north London suburb called Enfield: divorced woman with four kids beset by knockings, apparitions, voices, levitations, and constant furniture rearrangements. The Harpers did manage to stick it out longer than the Amityville tribe - over a year - thus proving, evidently, that the stiff upper lip has the upper hand, but it's a tedious year indeed. Playfair, a journalist, and an inventor colleague from the Society for Psychical Research named Maurice Grosse spend a lot of time racing up and down stairs to investigate knocks and thuds, and to repair equipment which tested out fine until. . . something strange gummed it up. Whenever a sideboard tips over or a pillow zooms across the room, Playfair is quick to assure us that everyone is in full view; but after all, we don't know Playfair any more than we know the Harpers.

He also brings in mediums who locate many different spirits latching on for the ride - men, women, and children - but nobody quite pins these presences' past lives down. The mystery is never really solved - is it related somehow to the earlier death of Grosse's daughter Janet (after all, the poltergeist focuses on the Harper named - coincidentally - Janet)? Is it a manifestation of the family's troubled consciences (messy divorce, etc.?). Or are the spirits bleeding energy from Janet and sister Rose, both at that notorious high-energy stage called puberty? Nobody knows, but at last the strange doings subside, and all settle down for some uninterrupted sleep.