A young mathematician, David Summer, and his English wife, Amy, move to a Cornish village, seeking the quiet life. But beneath the seemingly peaceful isolation of the village lies a savagery and violence that could destroy the couple.

A young American mathematician moves with his English wife, Amy, to the village where she grew up. Their sense of safety unravels as the local men David has hired to repair their house prove more interested in leering at Amy and intimidating David, beginning an agonizing initiation into the iron laws of violent masculinity that govern Peckinpah's world.