Chapter 1: One night Walter meets a strange woman dressed all in white. They talk together and Walter is very much surprised to hear the woman talking about the place and the family he is on his way to see. Before he can ask her any questions, she disappears.
Chapter 2: Walter goes to Cumberland. At Limmeridge
House he meets his pupils, Marian and Laura, who are half-sisters. Walter notices that Laura resembles the
‘woman in white’ very much. He tells Marian about the strange woman. She is keen to help him solve the mystery.
Chapter 3: Walter enjoys his life at Limmeridge House.
He falls in love with Laura and makes friends with
Marian. But Marian advises him to leave Limmeridge
House, because Laura is engaged to baronet Sir Percival
Glyde, who is coming soon. Laura receives an anonymous warning against her future marriage, and Walter remembers the ‘woman in white’ talking about some wicked and cruel baronet. He thinks the warning letter is from that woman.
Chapter 4: Walter goes to the churchyard to see the strange woman who was seen there. They meet and she gives him her name, Anne Catherick, and that she has escaped from the asylum where Sir Percival shut her up.
Then she gets frightened and runs away.
Chapter 5: Before Walter goes away, he and Marian go to the village to find Anne Catherick to talk to her. When they arrive, they find that Anne has already gone.
Chapter 6: Mr Gilmore, the family lawyer, comes to draw up the marriage settlement. He sends a copy of the warning letter to Sir Percival asking for an explanation.
Walter leaves Limmeridge House. Laura is very unhappy as she is in love with Walter.

PART 2
Chapter 1: Six months later Marian comes to Blackwater
Park, Sir Percival’s house, where she learns that Mrs
Catherick has secretly visited to find out any news about her daughter. Marian decides to visit Mrs Catherick.
Chapter 2: Sir Percival and Laura come from Italy with
Count Fosco, Sir Percival’s friend. Laura is very unhappy, it’s clear now that her husband married her for her money only. To clear out his debts he needs to obtain his wife’s money. Marian overhears a conversation and tells Laura about it.
Chapter 3: Sir Percival learns about Mrs Catherick’s visit which makes him very angry. He tries to make Laura sign some document about her money but fails. Outraged,
Sir Percival leaves Blackwater Park.
Chapter 4: Marian and Laura go to an old boathouse and see a strange figure. They become frightened and go home, but someone is following them, and it is not Count
Fosco. Laura goes to the boathouse again and meets Anne
Catherick there. Anne tells her she wrote the warning and followed her last time. She also says she know a terrible secret about Sir Percival. Suddenly she gets frightened and runs away without revealling the secret.
Chapter 5: Sir Percival comes back. Count Fosco, who has seen Laura’s meeting with Anne, tells him about the meeting, and they go to the boathouse to wait for Annethere. But Anne never appears. Sir Percival reads Anne’s note to Laura and becomes frustrated.
Chapter 6: Marian eavesdrops on Sir Percival and Count
Fosco plotting to obtain Laura’s money in the event of her death. Count Fosco asks about the woman he has seen with Laura in the boathouse. Sir Percival explains it is
Anne Catherick and says that by coincidence, she looks as if his wife would look after a long illness.
Chapter 7: When spying on Sir Percival and Count
Fosco, Marian becomes so terribly ill and is bedridden.
Sir Percival closes up Blackwater Park, and Count Fosco moves to London. Laura is told that he has taken Marian with him and she also leaves for London. But Marian is still at Blackwater Park. She had been moved to another room. Chapter 8: Lady Glyde arrives at Count Fosco’s house.
She looks very frightened and very ill. The next day she dies. Lady Glyde’s body is sent to Limmeridge and buried in her mother’s grave.
Chapter 9: Walter Hartright returns to Britain, where he learns about Laura’s death. He goes to Limmeridge to visit
Laura’s grave, as he still loves her. But in the churchyard he meets Marian, and the still very much alive, Laura.
PART 3
Chapter 1: Marian, Laura and Walter rent a small flat in London. Marian tells Walter their story. After she recovered from her illness, she learned that Laura had died of a heart problem. Anne Catherick had been found and put in the asylum again. Her mental problems got worse and she thinks she is Lady Glyde. Marian went to the asylum and found Laura there. She helped Laura to escape, and they went to Limmeridge, where they met
Walter.
Chapter 2: Laura says that Count Fosco met her in
London and took her to some place to meet her sister.
There he gave her a cup of strange tea, she fainted and recovered in the asylum. Using their similar appearance
Sir Percival and Count Fosco placed Laura in the asylum as Anne Catherick, and moved Anne to Count Fosco’s house, where she died as Lady Glyde.
Chapter 3: Walter wants to find out Sir Percival’s secret so he can use it to destroy him and goes to see Mrs
Catherick. At the end of a difficult conversation, she tells him to go to the church and look at the book of marriage records. Chapter 4: Walter goes to the church and finds that the entry for Sir Percival’s parents’ marriage is a forgery
– his parents never married, which means that he is not a baronet and has no legal rights for Blackwater Park.
Moreover, he can be sent to prison.
Chapter 5: Sir Percival understands he is in danger and comes to the church to destroy the forged page. He accidentally starts a fire, gets trapped inside and dies.
Chapter 6: Sir Percival’s death is officially recognized as death by accident. Walter receives a note from Mrs
Catherick explaining the extraordinary resemblance of
Laura and Anne – they are half-sister, and have the same father. Chapter 7: Walter comes back to London. He tells
Marian the whole story, but they decide to tell Laura only about her husband’s death. Walter and Laura get married. Walter brings Laura to Limmeridge House where he explains what has happened. She is legally recognized as being alive, and after her uncle’s death, inherits
Limmeridge House.