At the end of the 17th century, in a small town in New England, Colonel Pyncheon decided to build an overlooking mansion — the "house of the seven roofs" that originates the title of the book — on the place where the hut of Mathew Maule, a shady man who had been convicted of witchcraft in a trial presided over by Pyncheon, had previously been built. On the way to the scaffold, Maule had cursed the colonel: "God will give you blood to drink". On the day of the inauguration of the mansion, Pyncheon dies suddenly.
Hepzibah and Clifford Pyncheon are two elderly brothers, heirs of the colonel. Although they are the descendants of wealthy people, their lives are sad. The shadow of the sins of their ancestors persecute them in this mansion and condemns them to a poor, lonely and unhappy life. Everything changes when Phoebe, a distant cousin, appears, and brightens their lives with her simplicity and youth.