In 1828, the bankrupt Pyncheon family fight over Seven Gables, the ancestral mansion       To obtain the house, Jaffrey Pyncheon obtains his brother Clifford's false conviction for murder       Hepzibah, Clifford's sweet fiancée, patiently waits twenty years for his release, whereupon Clifford and his former cellmate, abolitionist Matthew, have a certain scheme in mind