The house of Seven Gables has a bloody history, dating back to when Colonel Pyncheon falsely accused a poor carpenter, Matthew Maule, of witchcraft. After Maule is hanged, Colonel Pycnheon usurps his land and builds the luxurious Pyncheon home on it. But with his dying breath Maule has laid a curse on all who live at Seven Gables, and when the Colonel dies shortly afterwards, the Pyncheon family is condemned to live in the shadow of the Maule Curse . In 1828, Jaffrey Pyncheon (George Sanders) is a judge embarking on his career whilst his elder brother, Clifford (Vincent Price), lives at home with their father, Gerald (Gilbert Emery). Jaffrey is obsessed with legends that say a vast sum of money is hidden in the Pyncheon house, but the family is now bankrupt and when he is told by his brother that the house has to be sold to pay their father's debts; Jaffrey begins to search the house at night for the lost gold and concocts a devilish scheme to prevent the house being sold...