Jennifer Simpson is a child of the fictional Granite Orphanage in Romsdalen, Norway. In September 1995 — the very month of the game's release — she and her fellow orphans Laura Harrington, Anne, and Lotte are adopted by a wealthy recluse named Simon Barrows, who lives in a mansion known as the "Clock Tower" for its most prominent feature. The game opens as the girls walk toward the mansion and settle into the main foyer. Mary, the woman who brought them, leaves to find Mr. Barrows but takes an unusually long time, so Jennifer offers to go looking — only for a scream to ring out from the foyer the moment she steps away. She returns to find the lights off and the other girls gone.