Lady in White - Plot

Plot

The film is told in flashback from the point of view of horror author Franklin "Frankie" Scarlatti on the way to his hometown, Willowpoint Falls. On Halloween 1962, Frankie (Lukas Haas then 9 years old is tricked by school jokesters Donald (Jared Rushton) and Louie (Gregory Levinson). He ends up locked in the school's cloakroom after the last school bell has rung. Trapped well after dark, he witnesses a ghostly scene: the brutal murder of a young girl. Suddenly back in the present, he is attacked and strangled by a dark figure. Losing consciousness, he again sees the murdered girl. Mysteriously, she asks for his help to find her mother. Without warning, Frankie is revived by his father Angelo (Alex Rocco) and rushed to the hospital. The police arrest the janitor, Harold "Willy" Williams (Henry Harris), believing him to be the attacker.

As Frankie recovers at home, Frankie's brother Geno (Jason Presson) brings him a newspaper article about the attack and he learns it was linked to the deaths of eleven other children aparently at the hands of a child serial killer. He also learns the name of the ghost - Melissa Ann Montgomery (Joelle Jacobi). She continues to haunt Frankie and the two become an odd sort of friends. Striving to help her, he returns to the school cloakroom to investigate. Within an air vent, he discovers several heavily dust-ladden objects including a hairclip and a high school class ring. Later, Frankie overhears the chief of police talking to his father about the case against the janitor crumbling and the cloakroom being the scene of Melissa's murder. Frankie confides in family friend Phil (Len Cariou) that the class ring probably belongs to the killer and that he thinks the killer returned to the cloakroom to search for it (the air system was due to be replaced soon and he feared discovery of the ring). Unbeknownst to Frankie, Geno has discovered and taken the class ring.

The school jokesters lure Frankie out to the nearby cliffs, where they encounter a lady in white living inside an abandoned cottage. The children take off running and Frankie runs into his brother Geno on the way home. Frankie tries to explain everything to Geno, but Geno doesn't believe him.

One evening however, Melissa appears to both of them and they follow her through her nightly death re-creation (which appears to start on the sidewalk then leads to the school). They trail behind her lifeless body as it is carried by an invisible figure out of the school and onto the cliffs. At the last minute, she awakes and begins screaming as she is thrown over the cliffs. A ghostly lady in white (Melissa's mother) then comes out of the cottage. Upon seeing Melissa's lifeless body on the rocks below, she flings herself off the cliff and plunges to her death. Finally, Frankie understands the source of Melissa's anguish. He vows to help her bring her killer to justice.

Willy, the school janitor is finally brought to court, but a grand jury decides against going to trial due to insufficient evidence. He is subsequently murdered by the mother of one of the serial killer's victims. Geno begins to research the class ring. Using one of his father's old yearbooks, he realizes that their father and the killer wear the same class rings. Angelo's yearbook reveals that the initials on the ring, M.P.T., belong to Michael P. Terragarossa. Geno quickly deduces that the "P" stands for Phillip, as in, their family friend Phil and he rushes to tell his father. Frankie happens to be with Phil at that same time and as well realizes that he is the killer after Phil starts whistling "Did You Ever See a Dream Walking" (Melissa's song). Phil catches on that Frankie has deduced his secret and attacks him, but Frankie escapes and runs to the cliffs. Phil catches him and confesses to the murders just before he starts to strangle Frankie again. Phil is struck from behind and both Phil and Frankie collapse to the ground.

Regaining consciousness, Frankie finds himself in Melissa's old cottage with his savior Amanda Harper (Katherine Helmond). She reveals that she is Melissa's aunt and has been living in the cottage since her sister and nieces' deaths. She takes the hairclip (which Frankie has been carrying with him all this time) and replaces it alongside its twin on Melissa's dresser. She was the first lady in white Frankie saw earlier. Phil reemerges in the cottage and kills Amanda, setting the building ablaze in the process.

Pulling Frankie from the burning cottage, Phil then tries to throw Frankie from the cliff, but the ghostly lady in white (Melissa's mother) appears and scares Phil over the edge. Melissa then appears from the burning cottage and the two ghosts are happily reunited. They ascend into the sky in a cascade of light. As Frankie is crawling away from the cliff edge, Phil grabs his ankle. Angelo, Geno, and the police arrive saving Frankie. Angelo tries to save Phil, but overcome with shame, Phil lets go and falls to his death, despite Angelo's pleas. The final scene shows everyone watching the cottage burn as the snow begins to fall.