Her youth has been spent working for a farm family, being raped by father and son, marrying the son who has now left her a happy widow. She is happy because World War I is over and she is enjoying being in control of the farm. And then she hires the handsome stranger who helped her carry the new incubator for chicks from the bus and across the canal. In the house by the canal with the job of raising and lowering the bridge for passing boats lives the widow's envious sister-in-law along with husband and nubile daughter.