 Young Danny Reynolds and his mother Laura (Elizabeth Taylor) live an idyllic life near California s Big Sur. Laura teaches Danny at home. After Danny shoots a deer, authorities take the boy away to live and study in a parochial orphanage/school. The unwed mother is distraught. At first, the school administrator, Episcopalian Priest Dr. Hewitt (Richard Burton), finds the free-spirited Laura to be morally bereft and without redeeming value. Eventually, Laura and Dr. Hewitt fall in love and begin an illicit affair.