Francine and Kath are sisters who run the farm of their deceased parents in an isolated rural village. Kath has a daughter by Buto who, greedy for land, proposes to Kath on her coming of age and subsequent inheritance of the farm. Francine dislikes Buto and, in seeking comfort from her life of unrelenting toil and hardship, develops a relationship with the outsider, Lek. Francine's family and close-knit community fiercely disapprove of this liaison and begin to wage war on the stranger, which has destructive consequences for the whole village.