In the 17th century, Colonel Jaffrey Pyncheon, falsely accused a poor carpenter, Matthew Maule, of witchcraft. Maule was hanged. Pyncheon took his land and built the luxurious Pyncheon home on it. But Maule cursed the Pyncheons, and the colonel soon died. The family has lived during the next 160 years desperately afraid of the "Maule curse".