When Lynette Perkins meets Tommy Williams, she is attracted to his mature beauty, he to her youth and naivite. Made to feel worthless by her father, Lynette succumbs to her need for affection, protection and exploration, what worldly, married, inebriate Tommy Williams offers. He declares his desire to take care of her, and their three-year affair culminates in their marriage and their move to his Lynchburg, Tennessee, cattle farm.
Tommy's masculine presence, raising their son and their sublime farming life vitalize Lynette, while saving Tommy from his alcoholic misadventures and neutralizing his deceptions with the locals exhaust her. When Tommy's drunken inanities endanger their son, Lynette follows a hasty and rueful plan to extricate her son and herself.
