Strange things are happening in a small English village starting when a man driving a car suddenly encounters a strange black cat in the back seat and through the mesmerizing stare, the cat causes the man to crash his car into a lamp post, killing him. The black cat travels back to its home, a rambling old house occupied by Robert Miles (Patrick Magee (actor)), a morbid and hostile former college professor of the supernatural who is reputed to be a medium. Professor Miles lives alone except for his equally hostile black cat, and spends his time making audio tape recordings at the tombs of the recently deceased. Meanwhile, an American tourist named Jill Travers (Mimsy Farmer), ventures into an open crypt to take photographs for her scrapbook when she discovers a small microphone on the floor of the place. Venturing out, she meets the local police constable Sergeant Wilson (Al Cliver) who tells her not to venture down the crypt again, saying that the dead like to be left alone. "They're not very hospitable," says Wilson.