Secrets plot
Anna Berter is an overprotective girl of fourteen and idolizes her manipulative, young, attractive mother. Growing up in Iowa, she is raised by the authoritarian maidservant Carline and her mother, Etta Berter. Carline's granddaughter, Edwina, also lives with the Berter family. Everyone is full of the arrival of the attractive Halius, the son of Etta's former teacher. He stays for a few days and both Anna and Edwina fall in love with him. After Halius leaves, Edwina turns out to be pregnant, but she refuses to say who the father is.