This comedy centers on author Charles Condomine, who hires an eccentric medium to perform a seance at his house party in order to find material for an expose he's writing. Unbeknownest to him, she winds up summoning the spirit of his first wife, Elvira, who is out to seek revenge on her former husband.
When writer Charles Condomine decides to hold a séance as research for a new mystery novel, he has no idea that he’ll end up being haunted by his now-deceased first wife, Elvira—a ghost that only he can see. Not surprisingly, Charles’ second wife, Ruth, isn’t amused by his claim that Elvira is in the room, and the comedy quotient rises to a fever pitch when Madame Arcati, the daffy medium who conducted the séance, tells Charles she has no idea how to send this blithe spirit back where she came from!