A stranger arrived in the village of Iping during a snowstorm in February. He went to the Coach and Horses inn and asked urgently for a room and fire to warm himself. The innkeeper, Mrs. Hall, noticed he kept his hat and coat on and his face wrapped in a scarf as he sat by the fire. She offered to take his wet outerwear to dry, but he insisted on keeping it all on. At lunch, he held a serviette over the lower half of his face while he ate. Mrs. Hall realized he must have suffered some accident or operation, given the bandages swathed around his head and ears.

Later, the clock repairman Teddy Henfrey came to fix the parlor clock. He was startled by the stranger's bizarre appearance. The man's eyes were hidden behind dark goggles and his head wrapped in bandages with tufts of hair sticking out. Henfrey felt uneasy in the man's presence but finished repairing the clock. After Henfrey left, the stranger explained to Mrs. Hall he was an "experimental investigator" and his luggage contained special apparatus. He wanted privacy for his work. His eyes were sensitive, so he needed to shut himself away in the dark sometimes. The slightest disturbance pained him then. Mrs. Hall found the man odd but kept her questions to herself.

Henfrey felt perturbed after the encounter. He described the strange guest to the carriage driver Mr. Hall, sowing seeds of suspicion. Mr. Hall resolved to find out more about this mysterious visitor staying at his wife's inn. There was likely more to this stranger than met the eye.