An air carrier ferry flight with no passengers aboard returned to the departure airport when the Flight Attendant reported and then fought the source of smoke in the cabin.

Narrative

Climbing through 9000' the Flight Attendant notified us there was smoke in the cabin. We stopped the climb and notified ATC. The First Officer went back to check out the situation. There were no passengers on the flight. He came back and notified me of the situation. There was smoke coming from the overhead bin area around row 9 and 10. We notified ATC of our situation and [that we] needed an immediate return. I started an immediate descent and ATC gave us a heading for the airport. We also had ATC advise us of other airports in the vicinity we could use if we needed to. The First Officer went into the back again to help the Flight Attendant. We leveled off at 3000'. When the First Officer got back in his seat I looked into the back and noticed that the smoke had dissipated. We told ATC that also. ATC then gave us another turn to intercept the localizer for the runway. We landed without injury. The total time from when we noticed the problem to when we got on the ground was probably about 5 minutes. The Flight Attendant did use the cabin PBE (Protective Breathing Equipment) and halon fire extinguisher. She did an excellent job of recognizing the problem; notifying us; and taking action.