A Melbourne house and land agent agrees to sit up with his employer to witness the arrival of family ghosts - his dead wife and son. With the assistance of Mark Sinclair he uncovers the murdress of the wife - the ugly old housekeeper, and the continued existence of the son who has returned from sea to uncover his mother's murderer. He suspects his father at first and thus feigns to be a ghost, but the father's innocenc is proven on his deathbed. Dreams are an intrguing feature of this story. (PB)