Wanda (played by Loden herself) lives with her husband and two children in a shack in a dreary coal mining area. Because she leaves the housework undone, her husband files for divorce. Wanda gives up her previous life, relinquishes custody of her children - "they are better off with him" - loses her job and drifts through poor Pennsylvania on her own. When she meets a petty crook in a bar, she allows herself to be drawn into a bank robbery. Barbara Loden's unsentimental directorial debut remained her only feature-length film and is now regarded as one of the most important works of 1970s US independent cinema.