The story begins in the 1300s with Ash Williams, a slave bound in chains. He reflects on his past through a flashback set in the early 1990s, where he was a clerk at a local mart, dating a woman named Linda. They take a romantic trip to an isolated cabin, where they discover the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis (Book of the Dead). The cabin's previous owner, an archaeologist, had found the book during an excavation. Ash plays a cassette recording of the archaeologist reciting incantations from the book, which inadvertently unleashes evil spirits in the woods.