Thrown out of her home by a jealous husband, a woman sinks into degradation. Twenty years later, she is charged with killing a man bent on harming her daughter. The daughter, unaware of who the woman is, takes the assignment to defend her in court.
When her husband becomes ill with heart problems, Joanne Tilford reluctantly returns to her family after a six-year stay in a mental institution. Her children are strangers to her and the woman who has been raising them is hostile to Joanne's presence.
