This melodrama is taken from a story by D.H. Lawrence. Yvette (Joanna Shimkus) and her sister Lucille (Harriet Harper) are two country girls who return home after attending a provincial school. Yvette is smitten by the sight of a handsome gypsy (Franco Nero). Her stern matriarchal grandmother (Fay Compton) objects, but Yvette continues to see the dashing young man who awakens her sexual curiosity. She is comforted by Mrs. Fawcett (Honor Blackman) and Major Eastwood (Mark Burns), two people living in sin, much to the chagrin of the moralistic townsfolk. Yvette and the gypsy finally engage in a forbidden romantic encounter after weeks of longing gazes and social disapproval from friends and family on both sides.