The film begins with Maria Owens being hanged for being a witch. Through opening monologue it is explained that for 200 years since, all of her descendants (the "Owens women") have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in the town that they live.

The Owens women are indeed witches, for the Craft has been passed down through every generation to modern times with sisters Frances (Stockard Channing) and Jet (Dianne Wiest), and their nieces, Gillian (Nicole Kidman) and Sally (Sandra Bullock). The Owens family is also cursed: any man who falls in love with an Owens woman will die tragically.