Plot

A divorcee with two sons has an affair with a young sailor passing through her Texas town in 1944.

In 1944, the telephone company has brought divorcee Nita Longley to the small town of Gregory, Texas to be their switchboard operator, which requires her to be at the switchboard day and night. Her boss Mr. Rigby tells her that the job would only be a stepping-stone to a more-lucrative job with regular working hours, but then he tells her that the war has frozen her position. Now Nita feels trapped, living in the telephone-switchboard office building with her two sons, adolescent Harry and infant Henry. Her divorcee status makes many of the townsfolk, especially the men, view her with contempt and scorn her as a loose woman. One evening, Teddy Roebuck, a sailor on a four-day furlough who is hitchhiking back to his home in Ardmore, Oklahoma, stops by to make a telephone call. When he learns that the reason for his trip home no longer exists, Teddy decides to stay in Gregory instead and befriends Nita and her boys; eventually Nita and Teddy fall in love. The stranger's arrival annoys locals Calvin and Arnold, who have been pursuing Nita, who has rebuffed their advances. The town's unidentified disfigured man, whom Nita fears, could ultimately provide her with the ability to move on with her life.—Huggo

Sissy Spacek stars in this bittersweet drama about a young mother, her two sons, and the mysterious benefactor who touches their lives. Frustrated by her dead-end job as a telephone operator and divorced from her drunken second husband (Sam Shepard), Nita finds comfort and understanding in the arms of a passing sailor (Eric Roberts). When he leaves, Nita resolves to pack up her boys and start a new life. But first she must confront backstabbing townspeople and the violent Triplett brothers (William Sanderson and Tracey Walter) in this suspense-tinged story of being scared, being alone, being in love, and being strong enough to face the truth.—Anonymous

Nita, a divorced mother of two boys, is stuck working as a telephone operator in a small Texas town in World War II. Her friendship with a sailor on leave causes tongues to wag in town.—Will Gilbert

In the town of Edna, Texas, in 1940, Nita Longley (Sissy Spacek) carries her infant, William Henry Longley, to a local bar and sees her husband, Harry Longley Sr., kissing another woman. Outside, she takes the hand of Harry Junior (Henry Thomas), her other son, and returns home.

Four years later, in Gregory, Texas, Nita works as an operator for the Southwest Consolidated Telephone Company in a small house where she lives with her two sons. She types an application for a transfer and presents it to her boss, Mr. Rigby (R.G. Armstrong), when he arrives for the company receipts. Tired of being on-call day and night, Nita wants a secretarial job with regular hours. Her sons, Harry and William Henry (Carey Hollis Jr.), roam to a nearby bar, where brothers Calvin (William Sanderson) and Arnold Triplett (Tracey Walter) play a trick to get William Henry's trousers wet. The "raggedy man," (Sam Shepard) a dark, derelict figure wearing a hat over his scarred face, walks past them, dragging a lawn mower.

Inside the bar, Calvin and Arnold discuss their chances of having sex with Nita Longley, figuring that a divorced woman must be as sex-starved as they were when they were cellmates at Huntsville Prison. After several drinks, the brothers drive to Nita's house in Calvin's pickup truck. Calvin goes to the door, but Nita claims the company allows no after hours visitors.

Later, on a rainy night, a knock on the door awakens Nita. Outside, a sailor named Teddy Roebuck (Eric Roberts) claims the man at the gas station sent him to use the telephone. Nita lets him into an anteroom, where a telephone sits below a small window with a door. At the switchboard on the other side of the window, Nita rings Teddy through to Ardmore, Oklahoma. He tells his girlfriend's father he is hitchhiking home from boot camp on liberty, but the father informs him she has married another man. Nita offers the drenched sailor a cup of coffee to cheer him up. When the storm knocks out the electricity, they talk in the dark until lights are turned back on. Teddy thanks her and leaves, but as he walks away, he thinks he sees a dark man in a hat standing nearby in the rain.

At sunrise, Harry and William Henry find Teddy curled up asleep on the front porch. Nita receives a telephone call from Washington, D.C., for Jean Lester, and sends her sons to bring the young woman to the telephone. A voice informs Jean that her husband was wounded, but he will be coming home from the war. As the tearful woman returns home, the raggedy man passes by, dragging his lawn mower.

Teddy pulls Harry and William Henry in a red wagon and shows them how to fly a kite. When he gives Nita the string, she trips over him and they fall down together. Every time she tries to play with them, the telephone rings and she hurries back to the house. With nowhere to go, Teddy decides to spend the rest of his leave with Nita and the kids.

Herman Callaway (Ed Geldart), a middle-aged man, comes to pay his telephone bill, but tells Nita that Teddy's presence "doesn't look good" in the eyes of Gregory's citizens. That night, the raggedy man stands outside Nita's house.

At the bar, Calvin and Arnold try to telephone Nita, but Teddy, unfamiliar with the switchboard, innocently hangs up the call. Arnold expresses anger that Nita told them they were not allowed in the house at night, yet now she entertains a stranger.

The next day, Teddy takes Harry and William Henry on a bus trip to Corpus Christi, Texas, where he treats them to a beach side carnival and a John Wayne war movie.

At home, Nita gets her best dress out of the closet, flirts in a mirror, and dances to the radio as she sweeps the floor.

That night, Calvin and Arnold peek in Nita's window and watch her bathing, but they run when the horn on Calvin's truck begins to blare. Nita telephones Sheriff Watson (Bill Thurman) to report a "peeping Tom." Looking around and finding nobody, the sheriff mentions that everyone is talking about the stranger staying at her house. He emphasizes that locals depend on her, especially now with a war on. When Nita mentions seeing a strange man in a hat hanging around, Sheriff Watson says he is a harmless drifter named Bailey, who has been around town for a couple of years, mowing lawns. Harry and William Henry, wearing little sailor suits, return later that night with Teddy, who brings Nita a set of rayon stockings. After she puts the boys to bed, Nita and Teddy dance to radio music, then kiss. She turns off the telephone switchboard, and the two make love.

The next morning, as prim Miss Pud and Miss Beulah pass by, they are shocked when Teddy steps onto the front porch without a shirt. Nita asks him to be more discreet, because "I have to live here."

Meanwhile, Arnold and Calvin lure William Henry into the bar, buy him an orange soda drink, and ask about his mother and Teddy. Harry tries to pull his little brother away, but the Tripletts grab him and ask if his mother gets naked with the stranger. Suddenly, Teddy arrives and fights with them, but when Arnold hits him with a pool stick, the bartender, Crecencio, ends the melee by firing his shotgun in the air.

Later, Nita tends to Teddy's cuts and scrapes. She bemoans being trapped in Gregory, but she cannot quit. She asks Teddy to leave, for the sake of everyone. Teddy bids goodbye to the boys, and since they have polished his shoes, he tells them he has named one shoe Henry, for William Henry, and the other Harry, so that no matter where he goes, they will be with him. As Teddy hitches a ride out of town, Calvin and Arnold watch him go.

Harry blames his mother for sending Teddy away, just like she drove away their father. He wants to live with his daddy, but she reminds Harry that his father has never returned for him.

That night, Nita telephones Mr. Rigby. When he comes to the house in the morning, she shows him the application for a transfer she is sending to the company personnel office in San Antonio, Texas. Rigby becomes angry, tells her she is "frozen" in her job, and insists that everyone else is also making sacrifices for the war. Nita knows all about the war, who is wounded, and who is not coming home, because every telephone call goes through her. When she telephones the company personnel office, Mr. Rigby disconnects her. Nita walks out the door and buys three one-way bus tickets to San Antonio from the local agent. Returning to the house, she finds Rigby indignant that she left him alone with the switchboard.

That evening, Nita and the boys pack their possessions. Before going to bed, Harry goes to the outhouse in back, but Calvin locks him in. Arnold knocks on Nita's door and claims he needs to use the telephone. She lets him into the hall, but locks her door to the house interior. However, Calvin breaks in through the back, unplugs the telephone system, and grabs her. As the brothers assault Nita, the lights go out. Somebody outside starts Calvin's truck, honks the horn, and aims its lights at the front porch. Arnold steps outside with a knife to investigate, and the raggedy man hits him. Nita shakes loose from Calvin, locking him outside. Calvin runs to the outhouse to grab Harry, but the raggedy man kills him, allowing Harry to rejoin his mother. As Nita steps onto the front porch, Arnold grabs her, but the raggedy man intercedes, letting her slip back inside. Arnold stabs the stranger, then prepares to break down Nita's door, but with his final breath, the raggedy man slashes him with a hand sickle. After moments of silence, Nita goes outside and finds both Arnold and the raggedy man lying dead on the porch. Looking closer at the disfigured face of the raggedy man, she realizes he is her long-lost, unfaithful husband, Harry Longley.

The next morning, with the sheriff's blessings, Nita and her sons board a bus to San Antonio. Harry is happy that their father returned to save them. They all agree they want to see Teddy again.