Miss Adela Strangeworth is the main character in "The Possibility of Evil." An elderly lady, Miss Strangeworth has spent her entire life in the town and is proud that her family was the first to build a house on Pleasant Street. She was less pleased, however, when the town put up a statue of a revolutionary war hero and not her grandfather.

Miss Strangeworth is a keen gardener who dedicates much of her time to tending the roses in her garden. Her roses are a family tradition: they were planted by her grandmother and tended by her mother before becoming her responsibility. She is so protective of the roses that she will not let anybody pick one.

While Miss Strangeworth appears to be a sweet and innocent lady, her preoccupation with keeping the town free from evil has pushed her into writing poisoned pen letters. She sends as many as "two or three" each day and targets residents all over the town. Concerned less with facts and more with the "negotiable stuff of suspicion," Miss Strangeworth believes she is doing the town a favor and does not realize she has created the very evil she seeks to dispel.