This human drama that unfolds quite slowly, is the story of the village woman Agnes (Therese Affolter) and her gradual adjustment after the trauma of being raped when she was a little girl. Agnes has an admirer, Adi (Siegfried Zimmerschied) who lives on the next-door farm, and their families hope the two will one day marry. Although Adi has fallen in love with Agnes, she is indecisive about her own feelings for him and besides, she is plagued by nightmares that prevent her from having a normal relationship. Then one day her family's barn burns to the ground and a young boy who was infatuated with Agnes dies in the blaze. Since some villagers feel Agnes is "cursed," she eventually opts to leave the village and stay with a friend in a larger, nearby town. On arrival, she discovers her friend works at a cabaret-style brothel and for awhile Agnes is tempted to sleep with one of the womanizers in the town -- until Adi arrives and she changes her mind. Both Adi and Agnes return to the village, and indications are that there is some hope for their future together, some hope that the nightmares will end.