In Ballyconnen, Emmy Baudine is a beautiful but disturbed young woman who works for the local priest. When the carnival comes to town, she encounters a handsome young boxer called Dan and lays his face open with her fingernails when he expects sexual favors from her. Hurriedly packed off by Father Corcoran to Yorkshire, Emmy is taken in by a farming family and manages to suppress the strange feelings of fascination and repulsion that she experiences in the presence of the opposite sex. Until, that is, the carnival comes to town and brings with it the vengeful Dan..