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Once upon a time, this luxurious house had a majestic father, a beautiful mother, a lovely younger brother, and a family of uncles and aunts. It was very lively... However, after a dinner, there were only three people left in the family... Who is the murderer? And the murderer's motive for killing is even more shocking... The sister Constance, who suffers from phobia of strange places, out of nostalgia for her lost family, cooks and cleans with the implication of unchanging religious rituals; and the sister Mary Kate is also surrounded by adventures when she goes to the village center for shopping, where she has to struggle to deal with the lame teasing of the village children, full of hostility and hatred in her heart. Uncle Julian, dependent on Constance's care, is immersed in his little world, playing with his manuscripts chronicling the family's history. How do these three people face their uninvited cousin Charles? People outside the castle went from snooping, sarcasm, and satire at the beginning. They made the tragedy of the family poisoning into a school song and spread it widely, to the terrible rumors about the castle, and finally people showed kindness to the sisters after the fire. What made people change their attitudes?

This book is a collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson, the master of American short stories and queen of Gothic novels. It includes 21 of her most representative and well-known short stories. Many of his works have won literary awards, such as "The Lottery" (won the O. Henry Award in 1949), "Go Home, Louisa" (won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1961) and "The Possibility of Evil" (won the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1966). In addition, many masterpieces such as "Come Dance with Me in Ireland" (1944), "Summer Man" (1951), "An Ordinary Day with Peanuts" (1956), "Slumber Party" (1964), etc. Have been selected into the "Best American Short Stories Annual". Shirley Jackson's novels often focus on the sudden falls that ordinary people encounter in gentle and familiar daily life, analyzing the dark side of human nature, and using irony to reveal the complex and sometimes chilling reality behind romantic fantasies.