A village novel about family relationships on the farm of a wealthy farmer who married a poor girl against his mother's will.

A blinded old peasant woman cannot bear her son's marriage to an old love and tries to break up the happy marriage. The young woman takes exemplary care of the children from her previous marriage, she is mostly silent about vicious attacks, but the mother-in-law does not give up and in the end manages to shake her son's trust in her with a skillful lie. The woman returns to her father for a time, but the illness of her stepson and the man's pleas make her return. The old woman does not give up on her pride and malice, but in the end it is the hated daughter-in-law who cares for her in sickness and old age.