Postwar years in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps - misshapen farmer Gretl is the heir to a productive farm that she has to manage alone with two long-term servants. Once, her dying father of hers, who made no secret of her contempt for her daughter, reluctantly gave her court because both of her brothers had died in the war. She is probably due to her hunched back and her demanding manners towards men that she is still single in her 30s. When she became involved with a farm worker on a stormy night during the harvest and she became pregnant, the doctor advised her to have an abortion; giving birth to her could potentially kill her and her child. Gretl decides to follow this advice.