Vera Barnes - better known as "Madame Veda Bronski", a spiritualist and professed clairvoyant - is charged with obtaining money by deception from widow Elizabeth Penn. The Prosecution claim that she took advantage of the vulnerable Mrs. Penn and tricked her into donating £17500, supposedly towards a spiritualist centre that was never built. The Defence respond that Madame Bronski does appear to have unusual gifts and even these are disputed she has a sincere belief that she can contact the dead and help people like Mrs. Penn.