Seven horror stories led by:
The Colour Out of Space is a 1st-person narrative written from the perspective of an unnamed Boston surveyor. To prepare for the construction of a new Massachusetts reservoir, he surveys a rural area that's to be flooded near the fictional town of Arkham. He comes across a mysterious patch of land, an abandoned 5-acre farmstead completely devoid of life. At the centre of the farmstead is an old well. The site fills him with an unnatural sense of dread. He hurries past it.
When he returns to Arkham, the surveyor asks around for information regarding the waste. He learns of an elderly hermit, Ammi Pierce, & asks him about the "blasted heath". The hermit tells him a horrific tale.
In the early 1880s, the farm had been productive, run by a Nahum Gardner & his family. Then, one afternoon in 6/1882, a large meteorite crashed into the farm, beside the well. It was metallic & contained a substance of an indescribable color that proved toxic. While scientists were never able to tell what the meteor contained, its effects were undeniable--the entire Gardner family was struck by insanity, illness & worse, whilst the land around them was slowly drained of life.