Walter Stuart is a stern, composed middle-aged man driving home to his family after arranging his father’s funeral. He is stopped by a sheriff and urged to turn back to the town, as the town ahead is being evacuated due to an impending tornado. Stuart insists that he can continue forward and see if anybody needs help, and he presses on, excited, despite the sheriff’s protests. He comes upon a girl and a boy waving their arms in the road, deserted by their drunken father. The sister attempts to push her brother in but he hesitates, crying for his horse, and by the time they’re both in the road is impassable.

The brother struggles with his horse, ignoring Stuart’s admonition to get to the house, until the horse breaks free and flees down the road. Stuart pushes him into the house and they attempt to barricade the walls with furniture. The girl accepts his presence harshly, knowing their situation is hopeless. They take shelter in the attic when the first floor begins flooding, Stuart questioning aloud why he is there, what foolishness compelled him to drive on into the storm now that death seems imminent. He grabs at an ax in the attic and for a second wants to strike at the boy in his helpless rage. But instead, realizing the house will be collapsing soon, he chops a hole in the attic wall and pushes the children out. They cling together and watch the house wash away, Stuart feeling he’ll never again belong to his own household, his former life.

The trio makes it through the night and climb to a dry spot atop a hill to wait for help. Stuart is alarmed by the sudden life breathed back into the earth. The mythic proportion of the storm has mocked him and the order he had perceived the whole of his life; he’s been unhinged. He chases the boy down the hill, deals him a blow and pushes him into the water. The girl is waiting for him with a board in hand, but just at that moment a boat appears on the horizon, and Stuart wades into the water crying for help.