Viola Lloyd is the original lady of Bly Manor. During the 1600s, Viola marries a man named Arthur Lloyd in order to keep control of her family's home. They fall in love and have a daughter before Viola falls ill with what her husband and sister, Perdita, think is the plague. A doctor confirms that it's not the plague but Viola becomes sicker and sicker until her sister smothers her to death, not out of mercy, but out of jealousy and because she's had enough.
When Viola's husband and daughter throw her "cursed" trunk full of clothes into the lake, she eventually begins her transformation into the Lady in the Lake. As the Lady, Viola takes the lives of many, including the doll face ghost, as she searches for her lost daughter until she no longer resembles herself or remembers why she walks the halls of Bly Manor.