When she is not spending time quietly with her mother, a woman who lives peacefully in the country hangs around Kurt Heismann, a tragic, eccentric local artist with a dead wife and a teenage daughter. She enjoys his company as a friend, but she admits they are both aware she is in love with him. Heismann hires a local boy named Davan to help with his work, which is a turbulent experience almost immediately, but it works out semi-stably. Davan is somewhat crude and clumsy, and the woman remarks that his family acts similarly, noting that their dog lives perpetually chained to a tree on a short leash. Heismann and Davan continue to work together, but tensions rise between them, especially when Davan begins a relationship with Heismann's daughter, Freda. This provokes anger in Heismann, but Freda chooses to ignore her father's ire, growing closer with Davan. The woman reflects on her own feelings for Heismann and suggests that they limit her in a similar way to the dog chained to the tree, but she does not explain why. The conflict comes to a head when it is discovered that Davan's car, which he had purportedly bought with his pay from Heismann, was stolen. When the police approached him, he sped away, with Freda in the car. A high-speed chase ensues, and Davan careens off a bridge and into a river, which kills both him and Freda. The woman is forced to tell Heismann of his daughter's death, which is extremely similar to his wife's, as she also died in a car accident. This occurrence, for some reason, allows her to let go of her romantic feelings for Heismann, even as she alone supports him in his immense grief.