 In rural Missouri Jenny Ammory is a young girl who lies compulsively. She neglects to do her homework and when sent to school against her wishes, she meets Richard Kimble - working as a delivery driver under the alias "Jim Fowler" - when she leaves her books by a dirt pathway to consult a rag doll she has named Nayet she keeps near a creek. Kimble/Fowler gives her back her books, she politely thanks him, and both go on. When she arrives at her school, however, she claims Kimble/Fowler attacked her to her teacher Emily Norton. Emily, however, has caught Jenny in lies before, and when Kimble/Fowler delivers some items to the school she talks to him, noting how she is persecuted by the wives of the fathers of her students because of her beauty that has attracted these men to her. When Jenny catches them talking, she is scolded by Emily but runs home and claims Kimble/Fowler and Emily Norton are having an illicit affair. This brings about a confrontation with Kimble/Fowler that threatens Kimble s life and leads to a showdown with Jenny at the creek as a town lynch mob closes in on Kimble.