In 1692 and 1693, the Massachusetts village of Salem convulses over accusations of witchcraft. It starts with a handful of young girls suffering fits no doctor can explain, and within months the accusations spread through the community until roughly 150 people, men and women alike, stand charged. Special courts convene to hear testimony built largely on "spectral evidence," claims that a victim saw the accused's spirit committing harm, evidence no defendant can meaningfully contest. Twenty of the accused are put to death, most by hanging, one by crushing under stones. The film traces how a Puritan village convinced itself its neighbors were in league with the devil, and how quickly the machinery of accusation outran any way of checking it. What emerges is less a story about the supernatural than about what happens when a legal system stops requiring proof.