This story began in Massachusetts during the unusually harsh winter of 1692, when the daughter of a local priest suddenly began screaming and convulsing. A year later, when it was all over, 19 men and women were dead. The calm Puritan colony turned into a stage on which truly horrifying events were played out. The Salem Witch Hunt is the last remnant of the Middle Ages in the new era, a unique historical event that formed the basis of many films and fictional novels, and, without a doubt, the most famous witch trial in the world. Both ordinary residents and well-known politicians of New England were involved in it: the trouble did not spare anyone - even the priest did not escape the gallows. Everyone turned against each other: neighbors accused neighbors, parents, children of each other. What was it - a relic of medieval persecution that declared mass psychosis on the entire city? Stacy Schiff, an eminent historian and brilliant storyteller, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, lifts the veil of secrets that have shrouded Salem for several centuries. For the first time, the situation that developed in Massachusetts at the end of the 17th century is explored in such depth and detail, and the persecution of witches is recreated so fully and psychologically accurately. In Schiff's talented presentation, the Salem events appear before the reader as a real detective investigation, equally important for science and fascinating for a wide range of readers.