Iris and Liz oversee a new era at the Cortez. John and Alex struggle to adapt to life outside the hotel. American Horror Story is a horror television franchise created and produced by Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk. Described as an anthology series, each season is conceived as a self-contained miniseries, following a disparate set of characters and settings, and a storyline with its own "beginning, middle and end". The first season, subsequently retitled American Horror Story: Murder House, takes place in the present day and follows the story of a family that moves into a restored mansion, unaware that the home is haunted by its former inhabitants. The second season, titled American Horror Story: Asylum, takes place in 1964 and follows the stories of the patients, doctors and nuns who occupy an institution for the criminally insane. The third season, titled American Horror Story: Coven, takes place in the present day and follows the antics and events of a coven of Salem descendants who reside within a boarding school, Miss Robichaux's Academy, centered in New Orleans, Louisiana. The fourth season is about a freak show in Florida, and the fifth is set in a hotel.