The departure of Phoebe, the focus of his attention, leaves him bed-ridden. Clifford, depressed by his isolation from humanity and his lost youth spent in prison, stands at a large arched window above the stairs and has a sudden urge to jump.
Phoebe arranges to visit her country home, but plans to return soon. His portrait remains in the house as a symbol of its dark past and the weight of the curse upon the spirit of its inhabitants. During the housewarming festivities, Colonel Pyncheon was found dead in his armchair whether he actually died from the curse or from a congenital disease is unclear. According to legend, at his death Maule laid a curse upon the Pyncheon family. Maule was accused of practicing witchcraft and was executed. The house was built on ground wrongfully seized from its rightful owner, Matthew Maule, by Colonel Pyncheon, the founder of the Massachusetts branch of the family. A delicate romance grows between Phoebe and the mysterious attic lodger Holgrave, who is writing a history of the Pyncheon family. A distant relative, the lively and pretty young Phoebe arrives and quickly becomes invaluable, charming customers and rousing Clifford from depression.
She refuses all assistance from her wealthy but unpleasant cousin, Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon. The current resident, the dignified but desperately poor Hepzibah Pyncheon, opens a shop in a side room to support her brother Clifford, who has completed a thirty-year sentence for murder. The house of the title is a gloomy New England mansion, haunted since its construction by fraudulent dealings, accusations of witchcraft, and sudden death. The novel is set in the mid-19th century, but flashbacks to the history of the house, which was built in the late 17th century, are set in other periods.
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