A family are quite literally tuckered out trying to farm for cotton when husband "Sam" (Zachary Scott) and his wife "Nona" (Betty Field) decide it's time to move with their two young children and start a life for themselves somewhere else. They alight on a rocky farmstead that centres on a ramshackle old house and decide that they are going to see if they can grow cotton there. Thing is, the terrain isn't ideal and their neighbour (J. Carrol Naish) is not the friendliest, so their travails are never going to be easy. Things are not helped when their young son "Jot" (Jay Gilpin) starts to suffe...