When a creepy older man named Leland Gaunt (Max von Sydow) moves to a small town in Maine and sets up an antique shop, bad things soon follow. Gaunt has the remarkable ability of selling people exactly what they want most, but his ideal purchases come at a price that involves more than just money. Through Gaunt's manipulation, the citizens of the town gradually turn on one another, resulting in violence that Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Ed Harris) struggles to contain.