The novel is written in the voice of eighteen-year-old Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood, who lives with her agoraphobic sister and ailing uncle on an estate.

[4] Mary Katherine "Merricat" Blackwood lives with her older sister Constance and their ailing Uncle Julian in a large house on extensive grounds, in isolation from the nearby village.

Six years prior, Constance and Merricat's parents John and Ellen, their aunt Dorothy, and their younger brother Thomas died after being poisoned with arsenic, which was mixed into the family's sugar bowl and sprinkled onto blackberries at dinner.

Merricat feels that a dangerous change is approaching, but before she can warn Constance, their estranged cousin Charles appears for a visit and is welcomed into the home.

He makes many references to the money the sisters keep locked in their father's safe, and gradually forms something of an alliance with Constance, encouraging her to leave her home.

Driven outdoors, Merricat and Constance flee into the woods after being threatened by the villagers, while Julian dies of apparent heart failure during the fire and Charles attempts to take the family safe.

The villagers, feeling remorse at their actions, begin to leave food on their doorstep, while developing stories about the house akin to folklore.

[7] Jackson freely admitted that the two young women in the story were liberally fictionalized versions of her own daughters, and Oppenheimer noted that Merricat and Constance were the "yin and yang of Shirley's own inner self".

[8] Written in deceptively simple language, by an entirely unreliable narrator, the novel implies that the two heroines may choose to live forever in the remaining three rooms of their house, since they prefer each other's company to that of any outsiders.

[13] In 2010, Adam Bock and Todd Almond staged a musical version at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, which ran from September 23 to October 9.

[14] In August 2009, the novel was optioned for the screen by Michael Douglas' production company Further Films, from a script written by Mark Kruger, with the support of Jackson's son Laurence Hyman.

Directed by Stacie Passon, it stars Sebastian Stan as Charles, Taissa Farmiga as Merricat, Alexandra Daddario as Constance, and Crispin Glover as Uncle Julian.