Twenty years (1927-1947) in a town's life, with the questions of Miss Louise, her beautiful niece Helen, the Clemmons, the Luber girls, the Gilpennys, Dr. McQuittie, the Tornans, the Beaumonts, Peter Lionel Stevenson and others, answered and unanswered. For Miss Louise it is the slow disintegration of starvation and uncontrolled dreams, for Helen it is adolescent passion for the international delinquent Stevenson which forces her into a protective marriage with old Dr. McQuittie because of her unwanted baby, for the others, there is madness, family disruption, lechery, frustrations and facades against community prying. There is a flood, a murder, sudden death and Lafayettesville, Pa., takes no notice of the toll. An ironic montage where acerbity is heightened by deft human touches, and intimate understanding of human futility. A sophisticated approach to small town lives.