The story's title character is a woman named Mrs. Ronder who keeps her disfigured face permanently hidden beneath a veil. Mrs. Ronder's landlady, Mrs. Merrilow, becomes worried about her tenant after Mrs. Ronder starts to shout out things, including, "Murder!" Mrs. Ronder agrees to Mrs. Merrilow's suggestion that the famous private detective Sherlock Holmes be allowed to come and talk to her. Holmes realizes that the Mrs. Ronder whom Mrs. Merrilow told him about is the same Mrs. Ronder who was bitten in the face by a lion seven years earlier. The same lion is said to have killed her husband. Although Mr. Ronder's death was ruled to be accidental, Holmes thinks there is something suspicious about it.