On a frozen winter's day, Mary Bicknor, the companion of a wealthy old woman, marries Easter Probert, whose child she is expecting. She cries bitterly throughout the service, which has been engineered by the vicar. Easter has no wedding ring for her, and though he lends her a silver ring of his own, he soon snatches it back—cursing her traitorous flesh—and boards a bus without her. Shocked, the vicar tries to tell himself he has done the right thing, but Mary, left to walk home alone, knows that misery lies ahead with the brutish Mr. Probert.