BAYOU

Martin Davis, a young Yankee architect, comes to New Orleans from the North to compete against a local man for the job of designing a new civic auditorium. On a visit to a carnival in the Cajun country of southern Louisiana, Martin meets Marie, a seventeen-year-old Cajun girl who works as a crabber in the bayou in order to support herself and her partly senile, alcoholic father Herbert. Marie has aroused the lust of the local storekeeper, Ulysses, a sadistic, illiterate bully who has attempted to rape her. After helping Marie to recover money stolen from her, Martin asks her to be his guide for the carnival activities. In order to impress the local building commissioner, Martin's contractor friend, Jim Tallant, enters him in a race using pirogues, primitive canoes hollowed out of tree trunks. Martin and Ulysses compete against each other and Ulysses, who greatly resents Martin's interest in Marie, wins when he deliberately cuts in front of Martin's canoe.

Despite Marie being underaged, Martin falls in love with her and arranges to stay longer in the area to pursue her. Ulysses threatens to harm Marie unless Herbert gets rid of Martin. Later, at a shivaree celebrating the marriage of an old man and a young girl, Marie performs a local folk dance. Ulysses then performs a strange, gyrating dance at the conclusion of which he challenges Martin to fight for Marie, but Martin walks away. Suddenly, the wind rises and a hurricane sweeps through the area, causing much devastation. While Martin and Marie seek shelter in an unoccupied house, Martin asks Marie to marry him and she accepts. Agitated by the hurricane, Herbert goes berserk and is killed by a falling tree. At Herbert's funeral, Ulysses makes a final effort to win Marie and taunts Martin into a brutal fight. However, Martin is victorious, and he and Marie leave the bayou to begin a new life together in the North.

Martin defeats Ulysses in a final fight after the hurricane and leaves the bayou with Marie to start a new life in the North.

The ending delivers resolution to both the romantic and cultural conflicts: Martin's victory over Ulysses frees Marie from her oppressor and affirms their bond. The departure from the bayou signifies escape from cyclical hardship and a move towards hope, albeit tinged with the costs and losses suffered along the way.