Jennifer Corner is a rather scatterbrained middle-class housewife. Her husband Henry is a school art teacher, and they have three children, Henry, Robin and Trudi.

Following the suicide of her mother, an emotionally disoriented schoolgirl is swept away to live in the countryside by wealthy family friends. Her entangled need for comfort and desire to explore her powers of sexual fascination soon embroils the entire household.

Doctor Bruce Nelson takes over the medical practice of a village general-practitioner. Upon arriving in their new home, the doctor and his wife, Tessa, receive a very warm welcome from all the villagers. Tessa is at first flattered by the villagers' constant fawning and gifts, but soon becomes wary of their strange ways, and begins to suspect there is something evil in the village.