Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) has been closeted in her mansion, a deteriorating Southern plantation, since the grisly murder of her married lover many years earlier. When the country wants to tear down the house to build a highway, the spinster's relatives and friends appear to rally behind her but each slowly preys on her mind until the gruesome rumorus of the last forty years appear to be coming true...

On hand are cousin Miriam (Olivia de Havilland), Dr. Drew Bayliss (Joseph Cotten), Jewel Mayhew (Mary Astor) and the scariest inhabitant of all, loyal servant Velma (the Oscar-nominated Agnes Moorehead)...