Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) and Gillian Owens (Nicole Kidman) have always known they were different. Raised by their Aunt Frances (Stockard Channing) and Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest) after their parents' death, the sisters grew up in a household that was anything but typical. Their aunts fed them chocolate cake for breakfast and taught them the uses of practical magic. But the invocation of the Owens' sorcery also carries a price - some call it a curse: the men with whom they fall in love are doomed to an untimely death. Now adult women with very different personalities, the quiet Sally and the fiery Gillian must use all of their powers to fight the family curse and a swarm of supernatural forces that threatens the lives of all of the Owens women.