- Violet Hunter has been offered the role of governess at an estate in Hampshire but the employer insists that for the role she will be obliged to cut her hair short. Her perturbation at this causes her to seek Sherlock Holmes's advice.
- Sherlock Holmes is approached by a pretty young woman with a bizarre tale. Violet Hunter is a governess by profession and she has recently been offered a position by Jephro Rucastle to act in that capacity at his country home, the Copper Beeches. Apart from offering an enormous salary, Mr. Rucastle also has a number of odd requests. It would be necessary for Violet to cut her hair short and from time to time she would have to sit with them in the parlor wearing a particular electric blue dress. Homes doesn't have much to offer by way of advice but after taking up her appointment, Violet urgently requests his assistance when she discovers that someone may be locked away in a far corner of the house.—garykmcd
- Sherlock Holmes is approached by Violet Hunter. She has been offered the role of governess at an estate in Hampshire but the employer, Mr Rucastle, has some strange conditions. In particular, she will be obliged to cut her hair short. Ms Hunter is taken aback and very reluctant to cut her hair but the salary is very good. Her perturbation causes her to seek Sherlock Holmes's advice.—grantss
- Violet Hunter (Natasha Richardson) visits Holmes (Jeremy Brett), asking whether she should accept a job as governess, a job with very strange conditions. She is enticed by the phenomenal salary which, as originally offered, is £100 a year, later increased to £120. But, Miss Hunter balks at having to cut her long hair short (her previous position paid £48 a year). This is only one of many peculiar provisions to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle (Joss Ackland), seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions.
She announces to Holmes, after the raised salary offer, that she will take the job, and Holmes suggests that if he is needed, a telegram will bring him to Hampshire, where Mr Rucastle's country estate, the Copper Beeches, is situated. After a fortnight, Holmes receives such a message, beseeching him to come and see her in Winchester. Miss Hunter tells them one of the most singular stories that they have ever heard. Mr. Rucastle would sometimes have Miss Hunter wear a particular electric blue dress and sit in the front room reading, with her back to the front window. She began to suspect that she was not supposed to see something outside the window, and a small mirror shard hidden in her handkerchief showed her that she was right: there was a man standing there on the road looking towards the house. At another such session, Mr Rucastle told a series of funny stories that made Miss Hunter laugh until she was quite weary. The one astonishing thing about this was that Mrs. Rucastle (Lottie Ward) not only did not laugh but did not even smile. Mrs. Rucastle is the 2nd wife of Jephro.
There were other unsavory things about the household. The six-year-old child that she was supposed to look after was astonishingly cruel to small animals. The servants, Mr. Toller (Peter Jonfield) and Mrs. Toller (Angela Browne), were quite a sour pair. A great mastiff was kept on the property, and always kept hungry. It was let out to prowl the grounds at night and Miss Hunter was warned not to cross the threshold after dark. Also, Toller, who was quite often drunk, was the only one who had any control over the dog. There was also the odd discovery by Miss Hunter of what appeared to be her own tresses in a locked drawer. Upon checking her own luggage, however, they turned out to be belonging to another woman but identical in every way to Miss Hunter's, even to the unusual color.
However, the most disturbing thing of all about the household was the mystery wing. Miss Hunter had observed that there was a part of the house that did not seem to be used. The windows were either dirty or shuttered, and once she saw Mr Rucastle coming out of the door leading into the wing looking most perturbed. Later, he explained that he used the rooms as a photographic darkroom, but Miss Hunter was not convinced. When he is drunk, Toller leaves the keys in the door to the mystery wing. Miss Hunter sneaks in. She finds the place spooky and when she spots a shadow moving on the other side of a locked door, she panics and runs out, into Mr Rucastle's waiting arms. Mr. Rucastle does not reproach her, instead he pretends to comfort her. However, he overdoes his act and alerts her suspicions, causing her to claim that she saw nothing. In an instant, his expression changes from comfort to rage. With the aid of the great detective, it is discovered that someone has been kept a prisoner in the forbidden wing. The purpose of hiring Miss Hunter becomes clear: her presence is to convince the man watching from the road that Rucastle's daughter Alice (Rachel Ambler), previously unknown to Miss Hunter, and whom she resembles, is no longer interested in seeing him.
Holmes, Watson (David Burke) and Miss Hunter find Miss Rucastle's secret room empty; Rucastle arrives and thinks the trio has helped his daughter escape and goes to fetch the mastiff to set upon the trespassers. Unfortunately for Rucastle, the dog has been accidentally starved for longer than usual and attacks Rucastle instead. Watson shoots the dog with his revolver. Later, Mrs. Toller confirms Holmes' theory about Rucastle's daughter and reveals that when Alice came of age, she was to receive an annuity from her late mother's will; Rucastle tried to force his daughter to sign control of the inheritance over to him which only resulted in Alice becoming ill with brain fever; hence, the cut hair. Rucastle then tried to keep Alice away from her fiance by locking her up in the mystery wing and hiring Miss Hunter to unknowingly impersonate Alice. Rucastle's daughter escapes with her fiance, and they marry soon after. Rucastle survives as an invalid, kept alive solely by his second wife. Miss Hunter later becomes principal of a girls' school, where, according to Watson, she meets with "considerable success".
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