When civil engineer George Fleetwood (Ralph Bellamy) and his partner, John Stafford (Robert Young), arrive in the Ozarks to oversee the construction of a dam, they meet local spitfire Trigger Hicks (Katharine Hepburn). Fiercely independent and versed in the ways of folk medicine, Hicks is suspected of witchcraft and has been cast out by the judgmental residents of the nearby town. When Trigger abducts a baby who has fallen ill, George and John struggle to help the impoverished woman.