[Gutenberg 7765] • Night Must Fall : a Play in Three Acts

In a bungalow in a forest in Essex lives Mrs Bramson, a persnickety and hypochondriacal widow. She pays her niece Olivia a small salary to act as her companion and the household also includes her cook, Mrs Terence, and her maid Dora. When Dora gets pregnant, Mrs Bramson is determined to get the boyfriend to marry her. At the same time, a woman disappears from a nearby hotel.

The police begin investigations and, when Dora brings home her boyfriend Dan, Olivia immediately notices that his behaviour is not quite normal. He is perpetually putting on an act and soon he worms his way into the affections of Mrs Bramson, leaves his job as page boy at the hotel and moves in.