Ruth, an unsuccessful writer, comes back after 50 years to the farm where she grew up in poverty, but she has barely time to see her brother Paul's grave before she dies.

Since Ruth had left the farm when Paul died, Othniel shows her how he died: Ruth had told him to bury the only shoes he had, his grandmother's shoes to make a stand against poverty - which left him unprotected when a snake bit him. Othniel gives her a chance to make things right, and Ruth is determined to take Paul with her when she leaves this time...

But then, maybe there is something that she has refused to see, in her poor family home.