Eleanor Vance, the protagonist, is 32 years old when the novel begins. After 11 years taking care of her abusive mother, she has grown awkward and reclusive. She lives with her sister, “[t]he only person in the world she genuinely hated,” and cannot “remember ever being truly happy in her adult life” (3). It’s for these reasons that she goes to Hill House: She seeks to escape and to take control of her life. Dr. Montague invites her to Hill House because shortly after her father’s death, rocks had begun falling on her house “without any warning or any indication of purpose” (3). Dr. Montague believes this to be an example of “poltergeist phenomena” (52).

As she drives toward Hill House, Eleanor relishes the freedom to do as she pleases, thinking, “I am going, I am going, I have finally taken a step” (10). She passes a cottage and vividly imagines details of what her life would be like if she lived there. She also passes a row of oleanders and invents a magical story about an enchanted garden. Eleanor’s childlike imagination is best encapsulated when she stops at a restaurant and overhears a little girl refusing to drink milk out a glass that is not her “cup of stars” (14).