The tragic love of Orpheus and Eurydice is intertwined with the complex relationship of Hades and Persephone. Eurydice, struggling with poverty, is lured to the industrial underworld of Hadestown by Hades, while Orpheus, a struggling musician, ventures down below to bring her back.

At an elite New England university built on the site of a Salem-era gallows hill, two black women strive to find their place. Navigating politics and privilege, they encounter increasingly terrifying manifestations of the school's haunted past… and present.