Harper, a bank robber who is posing as a costume jewelry salesman, checks into a hotel in Bradenville, a small town adjacent to a mine. Harper's associates, Chapman and Dill, soon arrive aboard the train and surreptitiously observe the bank's daily procedures. At the Bradenville library, librarian Elsie Braden steals a pocketbook after receiving a notice from banker Harry Reeves that her loan payments are past due. At the same time, mine manager Shelley Martin rescues his son Steve from a fistfight. Later at work, Shelley finds that the mine owner's son, Boyd Fairchild, is too obsessed with his wife Emily's infidelity and his own sense of failure to do any work. That night at home, Shelley and his wife discover that Steve has been fighting because he is jealous that his best friend's father fought at the front, while Shelley was enlisted by the government to increase his copper production during the war. Harper, meanwhile, discovers a small Amish farm outside town, and realizes that the hospitable farmer, Stadt, has no phone or other means of modern communication or transportation. That night, Boyd gets drunk and becomes friendly with Linda Sherman, a new nurse in town. Linda is sympathetic to Boyd and helps him home, although she resists his advances because he is married. When Emily arrives home, Linda warns her to stop humiliating Boyd, or she will accept his offer to run away with him. At her own apartment, Linda is unaware that Harry is lurking in an alley and watching her undress through the window. Harry then catches Elsie throwing away the stolen purse, but she threatens to expose him as a voyeur if he tries to implicate her. Just before dawn, Emily awakens Boyd, and after a heartfelt discussion, they decide to renew their love and take a vacation together. In the morning, Chapman and Dill kidnap Shelley and take him to the farm. There they imprison him and Stadt's family in the barn's hayloft, while they take Shelley's car to town. After Chapman calls in a false traffic accident to distract the police, they rob the bank. Harry attempts to shoot the robbers, but is killed by Dill, who also shoots Emily. The robbers escape to the farm, where Shelley has managed to free himself, Stadt and his family. Stadt refuses to help Shelley defend them because the Amish are avowed pacifists. Shelley initially refuses to turn over the keys to a truck, but decides to relent out of respect for Stadt. However, after Chapman rams Shelley's car through the barn door, Shelley shoots and kills him. Harper sets the car on fire, and Shelley and the family push it outside to prevent the barn from burning. When one of the children is wounded by Harper's gunfire, Shelley kills Harper and is shot in the leg by Dill. As Dill reloads his gun, Stadt stabs him to death with a pitchfork, then asks God's forgiveness. Later in the hospital, Harry confesses to Linda that he has watched her, and she forgives him. Linda then consoles Boyd about Emily's death, but he sends her away when he starts to cry. Now that his father is a hero, Steve's faith in him is renewed.