Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. Young Sarah Carrier is bright and wilful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which her family lives. Her father is English in origin, quietly stoical but with a secret history. When her mother Martha, a herbalist, is accused of witchcraft, she makes Sarah promise not to stand up for her in court. As Sarah and her brothers are hauled into the prison themselves, the vicious cruelty of the trials becomes apparent. The Carrier family, starved and deprived of any decency, have to battle their way through the hysteria with the sheer willpower their mother has taught them.