This is a very unusual book, wherein the majority of the story is contents of an ancient diary found by two friends on a fishing holiday while on the grounds of an old dilapidated house. The moldy manuscript has inscribed tales of strange things seen and heard. There are horrible creatures and huge monsters described as though they were old gods of mythology.

They find stories saying the devil may have built the house. While reading the tattered and torn manuscript the two vacationers are startled by extremely unusual lights and sounds on the grounds and also in and around the building that is in a state of disrepair or ruin as a result of age or neglect. Much of the written material influences the men as they shudder at what seem to be supernatural manifestations. Later on they frequently have dreams of an eternal shroud of spray.

This tale was first published more than a century ago in 1908 but retains the readability of stories by author William Hope Hodgson, still a leading name in exceptional weird fiction.