The Humiliation of Hannah

In a time when women are expected to know their place, this tale of desire and
surrender is steeped in the sweet romance and the ruthless brutality of an
uncivilized time. With her parents gone, Hannah Crowe feels responsible for
her postadolescent siblings. Life would be much easier if her brother Beau and
sister Jolie were not always getting into trouble, causing conflict between
Hannah and husband, Daniel. His prescription for these misdemeanors is a turn
in the woodshed, strap in hand. In the latest scuffle, Daniel gives the
reckless Jolie over to Judge Boone, whose courthouse discipline sees the young
maid half stripped before an audience and punished with a tawse. But when
Hannah attempts to rescue Beau against Daniel's wishes it's Hannah who's off
to the woodshed, later serving time naked in the yard, tethered to a post.
Extreme? Maybe. But the infuriated Daniel refuses to back down. When Beau's
bad debts to a unscrupulous swindler, Jarrett Cain, mount, it's Hannah being
harassed. She cringes at his sleazy insinuations, but she doesn't dare tell
Daniel. Jarrett and his boys soon show up at the farmhouse while Daniel's
away, with plans to take their payment in sex from both Hannah and Jolie. When
Hannah resists, both women are forced against the kitchen table and soundly
whipped; then while Jolie watches in horror, her sister is anally raped.
Believing she has betrayed her husband, Hannah is shamed beyond belief and
again refuses to tell her husband. She makes Jolie swear to keep the awful
secret. Days later, Hannah is kidnapped and taken to Cain's ranch, where she's
displayed, tormented and humiliated in the pony ring, then is the victim of a
gang rape by Jarrett and his men. Though deploring the vile things these men
do, a strange sexual satisfaction brews in her when she's so unmercifully
used. Could it be she finds a depraved satisfaction in these obscene sexual
acts? Finally freed, Hannah can't go home and face Daniel. She thus serves
penance at Miss Mamie's Whorehouse, cooking, cleaning and spreading her legs
for Jarrett whenever he's there to use her. Hannah knows this is her fate,
even as a determined Daniel intends to find her and bring her home.