Twins Roderick and Madeline Usher live in their ancestral home which has become a house of doom. The house is cracked and divided by a fissure from the roof all the way down to the foundations. Roderick is a man of the world who has returned home because he feels agitated and nervous. Madeleine has never left the house and has lived by herself. She suffers from a mysterious illness that is characterized by apathy, a gradual wasting away and attacks of catalepsy. After one of her attacks, Roderick decides she's dead and entombs her in the cellar under the house. However, Madeleine is not dead and she breaks out of the cellar to get her revenge.
