[On November 7, 1683 in Devonsville, Massachusetts, three women—Jessica Morley, Mary Pratt, and Rebecca Carson—are kidnapped by the townsfolk based on accusations of witchcraft. Jessica is disemboweled by hogs, and Mary is killed with a breaking wheel. Rebecca, the last to die, is burned at the stake. After Rebecca's execution, her apparition appears in the sky and a thunderstorm begins.] The town’s grim history shadows a modern Devonsville, where the memory of the Devonsville Inquisition still lingers even as the community clings to its small-town, conservative roots. Dr. Warley, the local doctor, begins to investigate a supposed curse connected to his ancestors’ role in the witch-hunts, and he is plagued by a bizarre illness in which worms crawl from his skin, a creeping reminder that old sins may still bleed into the present.
Three liberated, assertive women arrive in town to challenge the status quo: Jenny Scanlon, a new schoolteacher; Chris, an environmental scientist studying pollution in the local lake; and Monica, a radio disc jockey whose call‑in show often pushes back against patriarchal norms. Their fresh perspectives inflame the town’s older, more bigoted circles, including Walter Gibbs, a middle‑aged store owner who has recently murdered his sick wife, Sarah, with the rest of the community failing to acknowledge the true cause.
During an annual medical visit, Warley sits with Ralph Pendleton and uses hypnosis on Matthew Pendleton to probe Ralph’s links to the inquisition, uncovering hints that Ralph’s ancestor accused Jessica of witchcraft after she spurned his advances. The newcomers quickly draw attention: Jenny worries about stirring trouble with her bold statements—she tells her class that God was once depicted as female in Babylonian times, and that Judaism’s codified “father” figure shaped later beliefs. [Chris] is seen testing the town’s water quality as she suspects the lakes are being harmed by sewage dumping, and [Monica] hosts a lively radio program that encourages women to seek advice beyond traditional roles. The town’s men, feeling their authority threatened, bristle at these changes, especially [Walter Gibbs], whose fixation on Jenny borders on obsession, leading to tense confrontations.
As the tension builds, Jenny visits Warley for insomnia, and he begins to suspect she might be one of the reincarnated witches. Under hypnosis, Jenny clarifies that she’s not a witch but a “messenger from the unknown,” deepening Warley’s fear that the curse has found a new vessel.
Convinced that [Jenny Scanlon], [Chris], and [Monica] are the reincarnations, Walter convinces others to kidnap each of the women for a ritual echo of the Devonsville Inquisition. [Chris] is dragged into the woods, bound, and killed by hunting dogs in a grim mirror of Jessica’s fate. [Monica] is abducted from her radio station and dragged behind a truck, echoing Mary’s demise. [Jenny] is seized from her home and bound to a stake, as the mob threatens to burn her alive like Rebecca. The night escalates into a brutal recreation of the old trial, but [Jenny Scanlon] unleashes her powers, violently turning the tide with witchcraft and freeing herself from her bindings. By dawn, she has destroyed her would‑be executioners and vanishes, boarding a bus out of town.
In the final pages, a postscript from Warley’s journal notes that the curse has been lifted and Devonsville’s terror is finally over, leaving a town that has faced its past and begun to move beyond it.
