Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. Perched on the edge of a continent is a community dedicated to the service of God. A gang of teenage girls, stifled by the crushing piety of their elders, dance naked in the woods. One girl, Abigail Williams -- her innocence lost in the bed of John Proctor, a married farmer -- drinks a charm to kill his wife. And suddenly, the Devil is loose in Salem. The girls are discovered and, spurred on by their terrified accusations, the entire village is consumed by cries of witchcraft. One by one, the blameless victims of mass hysteria are torn from their homes until, inexorably, Abigail's vengeance is turned on Proctor's wife.