 When her father is hanged for shooting his wife and her lover, half-breed Pearl Chevez goes to live with distant relatives in Texas. Welcomed by Laura Belle and her elder lawyer son Jesse, she meets with hostility from the ranch-owner himself, wheelchair-bound Senator, and with lustful interest from womanising unruly younger brother Lewt. Almost at once, already existing family tensions are exacerbated by her presence and the way she is physically drawn to Lewt.