After her mother's death, Rachel finds herself leaving her native Boston and heading to live with relatives on a struggling ranch in the south. Life is very different there and she finds their way of living harsh - spankings are common. Rachel settles and marries Tom, who often spanks her both for punishment and pleasure. When Tom's half-sister Elisabeth comes to stay, they enroll her in a finishing school, much to her horror. At first Elisabeth hates her new school but as she makes friends she starts to settle. Discipline is strict, and Elisabeth and her friends get into much mischief and find themselves regularly punished. Elisabeth's remaining time at school is never dull, and there are punishments aplenty to remember. When it is finally time for Elisabeth to leave, she finds a way to take her young friend Milly with her, as her maid. Time moves inexorably on, and a couple of decades and a new generation later we see that discipline at the Bannerman ranch hasn't changed much. Rachel and Elisabeth are now mothers themselves and their off-spring follow the tradition of always being in trouble. But the adult women aren't exempt from discipline, as each husband deals with his wife in the time honoured way.