According to the will of old Anthony Cole, his heir must live for one year in the spooky residence known as "the house of the tolling bell." The dread of the house and the superstitions enshrouding it are so great that only two people consent to undergo the ordeal. They are Cole's grandson Richard Steele, who had been disinherited when his mother ran away with a dance teacher, and Lucy Atherton. Jules La Rocque, a distant relative, plots to obtain both Lucy and the Cole millions.