Set amidst the bleakness and desolation of a long New England winter, this dramatic tragedy is based on a novel by Edith Wharton and is set in the aptly named town of Starkwell during the 19th century. Populated by coldly conservative descendants of the Puritans, the tale begins when a new reverend comes to town. When he sees how the locals have been mistreating one of their members, a terribly crippled hermit who lives alone and shunned on the town's outskirts, the preacher is appalled. He tries to befriend the man, but is constantly rejected. He exhorts his new congregation to exercise a little Christian charity towards the pariah, but they do not listen. Eventually the reverend finds a lone woman willing to tell him the tragic tale of the farmer's life. As she speaks, the tragedy of how the man's youthful promise of a bright future was suddenly extinguished by the death of his mother. Shortly thereafter, he married his mother's nurse, a heartless, cruel woman who promptly begins to suffer from a variety of mysterious, debilitating ailments that necessitate his waiting on her day and night. One day his wife's cousin comes to visit. As lively and happy as his wife is shrewish and dull, the farmer succumbs to temptation and spends a joyful day in the cousin's arms. Unfortunately, his act leads to tragedy for all involved.
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