A Quick Rundown of What Every American Horror Story Season Is About

American Horror Story returns on Sept. 14 with the highly anticipated sixth season, and while we still don't know for sure what the exact theme is, we've been given a number of hints in the forms of creepy posters and teasers. Fans of the show know that each year brings more underlying connections between the characters, but one of the best things about AHS is that anyone can become a first-time watcher without having any knowledge about previous seasons. Most of the cast remains the same, but they all take on new characters and storylines each season. From Evan Peters's murderous ways to Sarah Paulson's stint in an insane asylum, catch up on everything you need to know before season six buries you alive.

01
Murder House
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Murder House

After Vivien Harmon has a miscarriage and catches her husband, Ben, cheating on her with one of his young students (he's a psychiatrist), the couple moves from Boston to LA with their daughter, Violet, for a fresh start. Once they purchase a gorgeous Victorian mansion, they learn from their real estate agent that the couple who lived there before them died in an apparent murder/suicide. It eventually becomes known that more than 20 violent deaths occurred in the home, which is why people call it "The Murder House." As the family settles in, bizarre things start happening, and they are unaware that they are being haunted by ghosts, including their maid, next-door neighbor, and one of Ben's patients, troubled young teen Tate Langdon.

02
Asylum
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Asylum

After Kit Walker and his wife are attacked in their home in the 1960s (something he initially thinks is because they are an interracial couple), she goes missing and he is sent to a corrupt insane asylum, Briarcliff Mental Institution, for her murder. He then reveals that he thinks it was actually aliens who abducted his wife, but the asylum's staff, headed by Sister Jude, doesn't believe him. He befriends a journalist named Lana Winters, who travels to Briarcliff with the hope of interviewing a serial killer called "Bloody Face." She then ends up being admitted to Briarcliff after she threatens to expose their darkest secrets, which include horrific experiments on patients.

Lana eventually bonds with psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson, who sees her sanity and wants to help her escape. But when he successfully gets her out of Briarcliff, a whole new hell starts when she realizes that he is actually "Bloody Face." Meanwhile, Kit has relations with a fellow inmate who also ends up getting abducted by aliens. When she returns, she has his baby and he eventually organizes their release. When they return to his home, they find Alma alive and with a baby of her own.

03
Coven
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Coven

Zoe Benson is sent to live at Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies in New Orleans after her boyfriend dies in the middle of their makeout session. Her secret power? Magically inducing brain hemorrhaging in any man just by having sex with him. The other girls in the house include Madison Montgomery, a wild child and former film star; Queenie, a descendant of Salem witch Tituba who can inflict wounds on other people by harming herself (without feeling pain); and Nan, a witch who can hear other people's thoughts. All of the girls are hoping to become the next "Supreme," a rare witch who can perform the seven wonders of witchcraft.

The head of Miss Robichaux's Academy, Cordelia Foxx, continually butts heads with her mother, Fiona Goode (the current Supreme), over giving up the title to someone new. But after Zoe and Madison go to a local frat party, where Zoe meets good guy Kyle and Madison is gang-raped by some of his frat brothers, things change. Madison gets revenge by flipping their bus over after they leave, killing Kyle and six others. In addition to trying to prove themselves to Cordelia and Fiona, they also have to worry about Kyle, whom they brought back from the dead by putting together body parts from his dead frat brothers.

04
Freak Show
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Freak Show

Fräulein Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities, one of the last known freak shows of its time, is still attracting a few visitors in the year 1952 with acts like a bearded lady, her lobster-handed son, a strongman, his three-breasted wife, the smallest woman in the world, and conjoined sisters. But after a string of murders in the local town of Jupiter begin to occur, police believe they are because of the local "freak show," and not because of Twisty the Clown, a deranged serial killer who is actually the culprit.

When a wealthy woman and her son named Dandy come to see the show, he becomes obsessed with joining them as he's bored with his life at home. When they refuse, he joins forces with Twisty the Clown. Meanwhile, while the members of the freak show see themselves as a family, they try to think of everything they can to keep the show alive. Elsa, however, sells the show to Dandy behind their back so she can move to Hollywood and become famous. After they all quit to get away from Dandy, he goes on a killing spree and murders most of the freaks. But, to his surprise, the remaining freaks come up with a plan to get their revenge.

05
Hotel
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Hotel

Hotel Cortez is a downtown LA establishment that has been checking people in for years — but never checking them out. Ghosts of former residents and guests haunt the rooms and hallways, including former owner and serial killer James Patrick March, heroin addict Sally, and a demon that represents addiction.

When Detective John Lowe receives a call from a room in Hotel Cortez, he thinks it could be connected to a series of murders he's investigating. But when he finds an empty room, he soon realizes that he keeps coming back to the hotel for other reasons. His son, Holden, was kidnapped five years beforehand, and when he thinks he sees him in a hotel hallway, his obsession begins to grow. Holden turns out to be very real but is now the "child" of an 111-year-old vampire called The Countess, whom every other ghost in the hotel fears. As John tries to unravel the mysteries within the hotel's walls, he soon comes face to face with a horrific reality that he never could have predicted.