It concerns the quest of the hero, Alphonsus Cohenburg, to regain his estates and stolen identity after his parents are murdered by his villainous uncle.

Days later, just after midnight, the young Alphonsus hears a scream from his mother’s room, which he assumes is an expression of her grief.

Arieno recounts his life’s story to Alphonsus, describing his love for Camilla, a young woman who died from despair.

There a young man tells the story of his family, who rented land from Count Cohenburg, Alphonsus’s father.

Believing Frederic to be dead, she fled to the convent, where she died from her grief, after giving birth to a child, the novice Lauretta.

The hermit tends to Lauretta and informs her of the mysterious reputation of the castle in which she was imprisoned, and how it used to belong to the Byroff family, but has since been abandoned.

The hermit proposes to deliver a letter to Alphonsus, via Baron Smaldart, to inform him of Lauretta’s location.

The hermit eventually returned home, where he discovered his family had died in his absence, at which point he withdrew from society.

Meanwhile, Alphonsus, having realised that Lauretta is missing goes to Baron Smaldart and reveals Theodore’s misconduct, accusing him of involvement in the abduction.

The arrival of Theodore and Kroonzer interrupts Count Byroff’s story, as they begin attacking him, causing Lauretta to flee and faint.

Volume III When Lauretta awakes she is greeted by Alphonsus and informed that her father has killed Theodore and that Kroonzer has fled.

The two then travelled to Germany and joined a group of bandits, leading to Count Byroff’s involvement in Lauretta’s abduction.

On the journey to Cohenburg castle the group stops at an inn and encounters Jacques, the servant who had helped free Count Byroff from the Bastille.

Jacques alone returns to Lauretta and Count Byroff, and claims that Alphonsus is trapped in the castle by ghostly black figures.

On his return, Jacques tells Count Byroff about a conversation he overheard at the monastery, causing the two to realise that the monks are responsible for ringing the bell, and that they were the black figures witnessed in the castle.

Alphonsus begs one of the friars, Father Nicholas, for forgiveness and reveals his identity as the heir to Cohenburg Castle.

It is revealed that Alphonsus’s father, consumed with jealousy, faked his own death in an attempt to catch Frederic and Anna conducting an affair.

When dawn came, she saw that she had not killed Frederic, but her own husband, making herself the target of the young Alphonsus’s vow for revenge, causing her to send him away from her and the castle.

Father Nicholas explains that the tolling of the bell at midnight was intended keep visitors away from the castle by making it seem haunted, and to call holy men to Anna to assist with her prayers.

[5] David Putner wrote that the narrative is “driven by melancholy”, Alphonsus being the most prone to it, frequently falling ill, owing to the overwhelming nature of his emotions.

[7] Allen W. Grove stated that “the novel is constructing a sexual politics by no means restricted to the conventional, predictable marital ending”.

Michael Sadleir's review of The Midnight Bell stated that the novel failed to live up to its title, which was “almost of gothic masterpiece”.

[11] Sadleir concluded that The Midnight Bell was lacking in quality compared with Lathom’s other novels, particularly Men and Manners (1799).

[12] However, Sadleir did draw positive attention to the chapters focusing on the Bastille in The Midnight Bell, owing to their “realism”.

[13] The Midnight Bell has also received some more favourable reviews; Susan Allen Ford, for example, writing for the Jane Austen Society of North America, described the “highly episodic and fast-paced” nature of the novel as a good choice for an evening’s read.

[15] It was published anonymously in three volumes, a format that was repeated when the novel was republished by J. Haly, M. Harris, and J. Connor in Cork in 1798.

[19] The Midnight Bell was republished by the Folio Press in 1968 as part of a collector’s set of the gothic novels mentioned in Northanger Abbey.