 This film adaptation of the  Lillian Hellman  (qv) play depicts a post-Civil War southern community where nothing is more important than money and power to Regina Giddens ( Bette Davis  (qv)). In order to join her equally ruthless brothers in a scheme that is sure to gain her wealth and power, she uses her young, naïve daughter to fetch her estranged, ailing husband who is living elsewhere. When she cannot convince her husband to give her the money, she sets forward a cunning plan which escalates.