How To Hang A Witch

Sam and Vivian have a tense conversation about Sam’s father, Mrs. Meriwether, and Salem. Vivian hints at Sam’s socially troubled past and tells her to curb her attitude. Despite her snarky comments, Sam is sad her relationship with Vivian has deteriorated since her dad got sick. Sam enjoys the mysterious grandeur of the house and wishes her father were there. When she goes to her room, she finds all her clothes have somehow fallen out of the armoire. She kisses her father’s picture and notices a flower in a vase on her table. It looks like her doorknob, which is shaped like a black-eyed Susan.

In homeroom, Sam sits next to two girls, Alice and Mary, dressed in “gothic chic” clothing. They tell her to move, but a girl named Susannah sits on the other side of Sam and says it’s fine. Sam’s last name is said aloud, and the class recognizes that she must be a descendant of Cotton Mather, a Puritan clergyman who is widely believed to be behind the 17th-century Salem witch trials. Alice and Mary whisper that they thought the last Mather died, and Sam calls them out for being rude about her grandmother. The teacher silences them, but the two girls throw her looks all class and pass notes. Between classes, Sam runs into an unfriendly but handsome boy who glares and walks away. Jaxon explains the girls are part of a group called the Descendants, four girls and one boy descended from Salem witches who were persecuted during the trials. Sam realizes she has made enemies.

All the students find the Descendants fascinating. Alice pulls a hair from Sam’s head, but Vivian arrives before Sam can protest; Sam and Vivian argue. At home, Sam finds a room with a painting of a teenager and a poem called Black-Eyed Susan. Jaxon brings cookies from his mom, and they explore the library together. She tells him they never visited her grandmother because of the tension between her father and grandmother. In exploring the fireplace, they find a lever that opens a hidden door. Vivian interrupts them, and they hide what they found.

Vivian gives Sam pastries to bring to school. Sam’s birthday is in a month, October 27; her past parties were terrible, leading to a rumor that she was cursed. Sam almost drops a pen, but Susannah catches it. She overhears Susannah saying that John’s great-grandfather died the night before. Their AP History teacher tells them they will be doing a historical reenactment and writing an essay on the Salem Witch Trials. When Sam says she doesn’t want to play her ancestor, the teacher insists. The Descendants will play their ancestors. Kids in the class become sick: Sam realizes they are all kids from her homeroom who ate the pastries from Vivian.

Rumors that Sam poisoned people circulate, and she finds “psycho” painted on her locker. John and Sam argue, and Jaxon holds Sam back from attacking John when he makes a crack about her father. The principal intervenes, and Jaxon talks Sam down, mentioning his own father’s death. They go to Sam's house and explore the hidden stairway, which leads to a study, where they find Sam’s grandmother's diary. The diary mentions finding the actual site of the hangings; the current site, Gallow’s Hill, is incorrect. Sam’s grandmother and Jaxon’s mother tried to find the correct spot. Sam’s grandmother writes that she wants Charles and Sam to come back to Salem. Jaxon thinks they’ve found their essay topic for their class and says Sam is the strangest girl he’s ever met. He leaves right as they get close.

Sam goes to the library to find the house her grandmother wrote about. The librarian gives her an odd look when Sam tells her name for a library card. Sam goes to a small room where old documents are stored. She looks up from her records of Cotton Mather, her ancestor, and sees Lizzie watching. Lizzie tells Sam she can’t hide. Sam tries to kick the door closed, but the lights go out, and the door locks. Lizzie laughs and leaves. Sam spends 20 minutes in the dark, stuffy room before a janitor hears her yelling. The keys won't work so the staff drills it open. The opening door surprises Sam and she falls back into a table so that it looks like she’s levitating. A crowd, including John, sees her awkward rise and landing.

Vivian tells Sam she knows about the locker. Sam feels guilty for not talking to Vivian like she used to. She tells Vivian about the pastries, and her stepmother calls the store and yells. Sam notes that their fights have become horrible without her dad.

Sam wonders how John knew her dad was sick and thinks Jaxon must have told the Descendants. She feels betrayed and goes to her room, where her clothes have been dumped out of her armoire again. She finds a carved black-eyed Susan in the back wall, which contains a secret compartment containing old letters to someone named Abigail from William. Sam thinks they belong to the girl whose portrait is over the piano. The lights go out, and Sam runs to find Vivian. When the lights turn on, the letters are gone. When Sam tells Vivian about the moved clothes, furniture, and letters, Vivian assures her ghosts aren’t real. When Jaxon texts, Sam replies that he’s a liar. She goes downstairs to look at the portrait of Abigail; it is dated 1691 but feels too cheerful for Puritan America. A glass falls behind her, and she jumps.

Sam avoids a confused Jaxon at school and, despite it being only her third day, people already avoid her. Lizzie holds a handmade doll with a noose and Sam’s name on it. Sam flashes back to her childhood, feeling cursed by incidents like her friend Kara falling into a lion's cage at Sam’s birthday party. In the middle of class, Sam yells at John and Lizzie that she isn’t cursed. She goes to a vacant classroom and sits, remembering her father telling her she’s kind. The dark-haired boy she knocked into earlier is in the doorway and tells her to leave Salem.

Jaxon tries to get Sam to tell him what’s happening, and she accuses him of telling the Descendants about her father. Jaxon says he tried to tell Susannah, thinking she would empathize. He tells her to come to his house and talk to his mom if she doesn’t believe him. Jaxon’s house looks like the inside of a ship. It serves as Mrs. Meriwether’s test kitchen for her bakery. She corroborates Jaxon’s story and tells Sam stories about her father.

Jaxon takes Sam to see a replica of a ship from the 1790s and says that his father, who built boats, used to take him there. Sam says she never had friends in New York and that she and Vivian both seem to lack filters. Sam misses her father. Jaxon puts his arm around her, and Sam tells him the story of the morning her father slipped into a coma. She thinks people around her get hurt, blaming herself for her father's condition. On the walk home, Jaxon talks about Salem’s historical sites and tells stories of people killed in the Salem Witch Trials. They agree they don’t believe in ghosts.