A young boy works on the ranch of a German farmer in early 20th-century Illinois and he observes a woman named Grimes from afar. The German farmer, although married, has an affair with Grimes. It isn’t until a man named Jake rescues her from the abusive relationship that she gets married and has a son. Her family life is hard: she feeds stock while her son spends his time having sex and her husband steals horses. In her old age, she goes out to get food for the animals in the cold. When she returns, the dogs dance around her, and she dies. The townspeople could never figure out what happened to Grimes. The boy who worked on the ranch cannot get the image of her beauty and harmony with the animals out of his mind, no matter how many times the story is told.