Compounded into a strong brew, this story of a steel mill, its workers, and a southern girl's seeking to escape loneliness. The Babe, big, friendly, finds release in drinking, casual friendships, until she attracts the general manager, Stevens, whose possessive, respectable wife drives him into Babe's arms. Their affair is gossiped about at the mill, and Stevens cools off, fearing for his reputation, particularly since the mill has just been through a strike. When Babe learns his wife is divorcing him for adultery, in her drunkeness she loses control of her machine, wrecks a man -- and runs away. Direct, unembellished story of meetings in loneliness that do little more than emphasize the frustrations and heartbreak that result. Warning -- uninhibited.