A letter in the mail, a hurried kiss goodbye, and a long train ride to a new town marks the end of Mary's childhood and the beginning of her new life. When she arrives, her husband is nowhere to be found, and she's informed that she'll be living by herself until her fiance is finished overseeing a harvest. To pass the time, she gets a job as a local schoolteacher... but a dangerous flirtation with her eldest student, Tom, will lead to a scenario she couldn't picture in her wildest dreams.