When she was growing up, all Madge Duckworth wanted was to marry a man who was going places. She found that in her husband, Marvin, a farmer, but then she discovered she had married a sadist, a glutton, and man so greedy that he cheats his brother out of his family's estate and disowns his own son. Madge's life runs on terror-filled inertia with horrible beatings at Marvin's hands. The only pleasant things in her life are her job in the telephone company in Pond Creek, OK, her friendship with Marge Brauniger, and spying on her son Jason and his family without Marvin's knowledge. Then cancer strikes Marge. She eventually finds solace in her housekeeper, Betty Buckley, Betty's threelegged dog Frankie, and Betty's old horse Argus. After she dies, her ghost fortunately witnesses Marvin's comeuppance.