A writer named Caroline Rose is persecuted by a `typing ghost` who is writing a story about her, even as she composes her own novel. Meanwhile, her fiance, Lawrence Manders, discovers that his elderly grandmother has been involved in diamond-smuggling (with a bizarre crew that sent messages via carrier pigeon). THE COMFORTERS, Muriel Spark`s first novel, was highly acclaimed in 1957, when it was published. Like several of her works, the act of writing - and, in particular, of writing this particular book - is part of the plot.