1699. American South. Evil has settled in the small town of Fountain Royal. A local priest and a respected farmer were brutally murdered—and it was not a human who killed them. Crops are dying. It rains non-stop for many days. Poisonous fumes rise from the swamps. People are haunted by nightmare visions in their sleep. The end of the world is near. Will the year from the Nativity of Christ come 1700?..Who is to blame? Witch! It was exactly the same in Salem! The criminal is caught and thrown into prison. To try her to the fullest extent of the law, the experienced Judge Woodward and his assistant, the young clerk Matthew, travel from the nearest city to Fountain Royal...