Burt Lancaster, as Bill Starbuck, bogus rainmaker, is like a great storm descending upon the parched lives of Depression-era Kansas. When he arrives in Three Point, the land as well as its occupants have long lain fallow. Driest of the dry is Lizzie, elder sister of the Curry family, Katharine Hepburn suffering her spinsterhood with dignified frustration. Lizzie is swept off her feet by Lancaster's traveling trickster who plays it like a Dust Bowl enabler on Miracle-Gro. Into this whirlwind of fecundity comes the local deputy, J.S. File, a dowdy and damaged fella portrayed by Wendell Corey. When the storm moves on, File remains, the perennial companion.