A woman teacher in a rural village is raped. Her mother kills the rapist, and helped by circumstantial evidence, her daughter claims she did it, is arrested and condemned to serve twenty years in prison. She gives birth to a son in prison, but he's taken from her, and she presumes he died. Ten years later, she gets out of jail because her sentence was commuted, due to her good behavior. She takes a rich lover, and they start a brothel that becomes very popular among the seaport's men - of whom she is the goddess, and for whom hearts are broken, and homes destroyed. One day, a young sailor is very attracted to her, and she to him.