What person is screaming and banging on the walls of the Winthrop House?
In the late 18th century, in the Winthrop house, something within it is screaming and banging at the walls of its confines. Joshua Winthrop, the owner of the house, rushes through the poorly lit corridors of the house before unlocking a heavily locked door. He begins talking to the creature inside to calm her down but she then kills him.
Randolph Carter regales two of his university buddies, Howard and Joel, with ghost stories. Randolph points out that they are sitting in the graveyard surrounding the haunted house of his tales (which happens to be within the limits of observation). The story that Randolph had been telling them was of Joshua Winthrop and his demon daughter, Alyda Winthrop. Joel comes up with the idea to stay there overnight. Randolph and Howard go back to the university, leaving Joel alone in the house.
Soon a group of students decide to go there, two young lads fresh from the university football team, Bruce Weeks and John Babcock, and a couple of girls that they want to score with: one of which Howard is in love with, Wendy Barnes, and the other, Tanya Heller, is "in love" with Howard. They go there and get set up in a room to tell each other ghost stories. Meanwhile Howard chases after Randolph to tell him that Joel never came back from the house, prompting Randolph to swing into action saying "I'll get the flashlights" with some degree of authority and urgency, despite not being too bothered about the missing student prior to that.
Alyda Winthrop