Arthur Kipps Timeline and Summary

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• At the book's opening, Arthur Kipps is celebrating the holidays with his family at their cozy little cottage. This is off to a great start!
• But, when his stepchildren start to tell ghost stories, he gets a little strange and storms out.
• It turns out that Arthur has a story to tell:
• As a young man, he was sent to the town of Crythin Gifford to sort out the affairs of a deceased woman named Alice Drablow.
• It's a creepy town with a lot of unfriendly folks, especially this one spooky woman in black who shows up at Alice's funeral.
• Weird thing is, no one wants to talk about it.
• Also weird: Eel Marsh House, and how it's conveniently cut off by the tide at certain hours of the day, so he could potentially just get stuck there.
• Spooky things happen at night, like a rocking chair that moves by itself in the nursery and the continued sound of the pony and trap.
• Gradually, Arthur figures out that the woman in black is a ghost: Jennet Humfrye, Mrs. Drablow's sister. Her child died in a terrible accident, so obviously she now haunts the area and foreshadows—or, hey, maybe even causes—the death of children.
  
• No child has died this time, so Arthur feels relieved. He returns to London and life as usual.
• He gets married to a woman named Stella and they have a child named Joseph.
• One day at the fair, Joseph and Stella go on a pony and trap ride and as they ride off, Arthur sees the woman in black again. When the horse sees her, it gets spooked and Stella and Joseph get into a terrible accident and both die.
• Arthur is left alone and bereft and the woman in black has gotten her revenge.
• And that is why Arthur Kipps is not a fan of ghost stories. The end.