Sisters Sally (Sandra Bullock) and Jillian (Nicole Kidman) Owens are the latest in a line of witch women suffering under a curse, originating with their lynched-by-the-Puritans ancestor, which dooms the men they love. Sally strives for acceptance in their small town, while Jillian leaves home to find a man the curse can't touch by trial and error. Tragedy sends them both home (to both the house and the cackling wise-woman aunts with which they grew up). Jillian's problems with creepy ex-boyfriend Jimmy (Goran Visjnic) are only exascerbated by careless use of magic, but deeper bonds of human feeling unite the sisters and their nosy, gossipy, petty neighbors: a stronger magic than the spell-book stuff that got them in trouble in the first place. A sweet romance for Sally with her police investigator rounds out the plot.