Ghost Story, written by Peter Straub and published in 1979, is a classic in the American horror genre. Straub received critical and commercial success with Ghost Story, including the adaptation of the book into a 1981 film starring Fred Astaire. Much of his work received rave reviews and critical acclaim. Ghost Story grounds itself in the tradition of the American ghost story, including references to Henry James and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Straub explores the nature of the outsider, the importance of friendship, and the perils of shame.

This guide references the Berkley trade epub edition, published in 2016.

Content Warning: This guide’s source text discusses abuse of prescription substances and alcohol, suicide, physical and sexual abuse of children, violence, and sexual assault. The source text relies on anti-Black stereotypes and contains some anti-Black epithets.

Plot Summary

Donald Wanderley drives south through West Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia to reach Panama City, Florida. He travels with a small girl, Angie, whom he kidnapped. The pair stop periodically, resulting in Don’s worry that the girl will run away or tell someone what he has done. Don shakes the child awake in the middle of the night, questioning her about her name and family. He is agitated, slips in and out of awareness, and experiences hallucinations. The prologue ends with him holding a knife behind his back, asking the girl, “What are you?”

The novel jumps back in time to Milburn, New York, a fictional city east of Binghamton. Straub introduces the Chowder Society, a group of old friends who get together in dress attire for cocktails and conversation. This section of the novel takes place surrounding the first anniversary of the death of one of the Chowder Society’s members, Edward Wanderley. The Chowder Society now consists of four men who have been friends almost all their lives: Frederick “Ricky” Hawthorne, Sears James, John Jaffrey, and Lewis Benedikt. At the meeting of the Chowder Society that evening, the men decide to reach out to Edward’s nephew, Don. John argues for Don’s help, expressing his feelings of responsibility as he was the one who hosted the disastrous party for the actress Ann-Veronica Moore that led to Edward’s death. Lewis Benedikt also votes to reach out to Don, hoping that Don will be able to help the group confront the tragedy. Ricky alone protests, saying that all change is bad change.

At the next meeting, Ricky tells his ghost story, a tradition that began a year ago as they were processing the death of their friend. Sears tells the story of when he was young and tried teaching. He taught in a small rural schoolhouse and taught all the children in one room. Sears learned that the community shunned one of his students, Fenny Bate, and his sister. He also learned that the community suspected the two of killing their older brother, Gregory, who abused them physically and sexually. Sears saw visions of Gregory following his siblings, and he tried to help, but Gregory prevailed, helping Fenny to “cross over” to his side. Sears left teaching for law school and has not told this story to anyone until that night.

The next day, Sears and Ricky are called out to a client’s farm. Sheriff Hardesty joins the lawyers as they tramp through the snow to the farmer’s field where four sheep lie dead in the snow. All their throats have been slit, but there are no footprints or blood. After leaving the farm, Ricky and Sears admit their fear to each other about the sheep and they discover that they have been experiencing the same nightmare. The narrative transitions to John Jaffrey, who wakes up from his own nightmare beside Milly Sheehan, his housekeeper. John gets dressed and injects himself with insulin and morphine. He still hears a voice from his dream that rushes him outside, where he follows its direction to jump off a bridge to his death. As Ricky and Sears leave to meet the sheriff after hearing about John’s death, Sears employs a secretary by the name of Anna Mostyn, who claims to be a niece of Eva Galli.

Don arrives in Milburn the day of the funeral. The Chowder society asks for his help in discovering what happened to his uncle Edward, John, and the sheep. Don listens to their stories and tells them about his ex-fiancé, Alma Mobley. Don was teaching at Berkeley when he and Alma, a graduate student, began their relationship. When he broke it off, she found his brother, David. Don is convinced that Alma was involved with the occult and that she was not a human. David’s entanglement with Alma led to his death.

Lewis Benedikt takes a break from Milburn to go hunting with his friend Otto where he tells Otto about his wife’s death. Lewis finds himself alone in the forest reliving those last days with his wife in his mind, only to be killed. The remaining Chowder Society members tell Don about their encounter with Eva Galli as young men. The encounter ended in Eva’s death, but as the boys went to hide the body, they saw Eva sit up. Don tells Ricky and Sears that he believes Alma, Ann-Veronica, Eva, and Ann are all the same thing. He believes she is a shapeshifter that toys with them out of boredom. He also believes that Gregory and Fenny Bate have joined her and do her bidding.

Peter Barnes, a young man whose mother and best friend have been killed by the shapeshifter and her cronies, approaches Don about what he has seen. He tells them that Gregory and Fenny were resurrected to do the shapeshifter’s bidding. Sears leaves to find Lewis, but he crashes into a snowplow due to a hallucination caused by the shapeshifter. Don, Ricky, and Peter decide to fight back against the shapeshifter, Gregory, and Fenny Bate. The group hunt Fenny and Gregory to a movie theater. Ricky and Don are sucked into an illusion, but Peter breaks the spell and the trio destroy Gregory and Fenny. They track the shapeshifter down and kill her, but she escapes as a bird before they can fully destroy her.

Ricky tasks Don with finding and killing the shapeshifter. Don eventually finds the girl, Angie, who he believes is the shapeshifter’s new host. He kidnaps her and takes her to Florida. After the scenes described in the prologue, Don crashes the car, killing the girl. The shapeshifter transforms into a wasp; Don catches the wasp and destroys it.