It stars Saskia Reeves as the title character, with Donal McCann and Ciarán Hinds as the brothers who become her lovers in a conservative rural part of Ulster.
When she becomes pregnant and refuses to marry either man or even specify which is the father of the boy she delivers, the local minister (Patrick Malahide) is deeply unsettled by her indifference to convention.
She rebuffs his attempts to make her conform and give the child "a name" by declaring that all clergy want is for people's lives, however "botched inside," to appear "smooth to the eye--like lazy work."
The community seems only mildly censorious of the relationship between the three, but when Frank yearns for a woman all his own and makes overtures to a local girl, her male relatives beat him savagely in retaliation, crippling him.
The film then moves 18 years forward in time: Sarah's daughter Martha pleads with her to marry, as her mother's stubborn unconventionality makes it impossible for her and her brother to be completely accepted by the local community.