In The Secret Garden, the main character, Mary Lennox, is a ten-year-old child whose parents perished in a cholera epidemic in India. As a result, she is sent to live with her uncle Archibald Craven in Yorkshire, England, on a massive estate called Misselthwaite. Martha is a young maid assigned to care for Mary.

A wild, windswept moor surrounds the huge property. One night during a storm, as the wind blows over the moor, Mary hears another sound: that of a crying child. When she asks Martha about it, Martha acts as if she didn’t hear it, although Mary does not believe her. Another time, Mary again hears the same distant crying. Martha again refuses to admit that hears the sound, running out of the room to avoid answering Mary's questions. Later in the book, Mary once again insists on hearing a strange cry, this time from somewhere inside the house. She confronts Martha, but Martha blames the sound on the strange sounds made by the house. When the wind blows open the door, increasing the volume of the crying sound, Martha changes her answer, claiming that it is likely just the scullery maid crying about a toothache.