 Miranda gets her opportunity when her mother receives a letter from their distant cousin Nicholas Van Ryn (Vincent Price), a wealthy patroon in Hudson, New York.Miranda manages to convince her parents to let her go to Nicholas's estate of Dragonwyck manor as companion to his eight-year-old daughter Katrine (Connie Marshall).Over time, Miranda learns that Nicholas and his wife Johanna are estranged from each other and from their daughter.