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Message in a Haunted Mansion Spoilers

Welcome to the new Computer Game Spoilers section of my gaming website. I added this section because I recently received questions about the plots of two different games which, to my surprise and embarrassment, I had totally forgotten the answers to. Then, to my further surprise, I was unable to find any existing website that would refresh my memory about the plots of computer games... lots of puzzle solutions, but no basic plot summaries.

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So I figured I'd better write some of them down while they're still fresh in my mind, just in case I or anybody else wants to refer to them at some point in the future (or in case anybody suffers a major game glitch and just wants to know what was supposed to happen in the end-- I get letters like this from time to time.) If you haven't finished Message in a Haunted Mansion yet and you don't want the plot of this game to be revealed to you, then you don't want to read this page. Please go back to my main Message in a Haunted Mansion page, where I give tips and reviews without giving away any of its plot.

But if you are looking for plot spoilers, just scroll further down the page to find them!

Plot Summary

The setup and basic plot of this game is based on the 1995 Nancy Drew novel The Message in the Haunted Mansion. As in that book, Nancy is asked by a family friend, Rose Green, to help her renovate a San Francisco mansion as a bed and breakfast. The problem is that there have been many strange, unexplained accidents delaying the renovation. After investigating the situation and barely averting another disaster (by putting out a fire that has started in the mansion,) Nancy discovers that Rose's friend Louis is responsible for the accidents-- he was trying to scare her into selling the house to him, because he knew there was a 19th-century treasure trove hidden somewhere in the house which he wanted for himself. Nancy finds the treasure first and defeats Louis, and Rose's B&B has a triumphant opening.

Character Subplots and Secrets

Rose Green: The family friend of Nancy's who has requested her help getting her new bed and breakfast ready for business. She doesn't actually have any secrets; it is true that she has taken out a large insurance policy on the mansion, but only for normal business reasons, not because she intends to destroy it. In the epilogue, Nancy mentions that Rose and Abby had to return the gold coins she discovered to their rightful owners, but that all the publicity helped their bed and breakfast become a success.

Abby Sideris: Rose's eccentric friend and co-owner of the mansion claims to be a psychic who believes in ghosts. In fact, she is only pretending to believe in ghosts as a publicity stunt for the B&B and has faked her seance and all the 'supernatural' occurences Nancy sees in the house.

Charlie Murphy: The contractor Rose hired to work on the mansion. He is young and inexperienced, but is a hard worker and is very upset at being blamed for all the accidents. His secret is that he is in fact homeless and is living in a secret room in the basement, which he naturally didn't tell Rose because he was trying to get her to hire him. He is not mentioned in the game epilogue, but near the end of the game he promised Nancy that he would tell Rose the truth.

Louis Chandler: The antique dealer Rose has hired to decorate the mansion in period style. He has been sabotaging the renovation in hopes of getting Rose to give up and sell the house to him, so that he can retrieve the gold coins. He is one of the less violent Nancy Drew villains, trying to knock Nancy unconscious and flee with the treasure rather than kill her, and anonymously warning her to leave the mansion after he sets it on fire.

Minor Characters

Emily Foxworth: You need to call this character on the telephone to learn plot information, but she is never seen on screen and is not a suspect.

Diego Valdez (aka El Diablo) and Lizzie Applegate (aka Elizabeth Valdez): These are backstory characters from the late 1800's, who Nancy learns about only through old documents and local legends. Diego was a notorious bandit and Lizzie was a prominent actress. They fell in love and married. Lizzie was the original proprietor of the inn Rose and Abby now own (which was called the "Golden Gardenia,") and after Diego's disappearance she hid his stolen treasure in the floorboards of her inn, which is where Nancy finds it in the game. In the epilogue, Rose and Abby have chosen to name their bed and breakfast "Golden Gardenia" as well.

Hannah, Bess, and George: As usual in Nancy Drew games, these characters have no subplots and exist only to chat with Nancy on the telephone and deliver hints if the player needs them.