Mary Ann Robinson, a teenage girl attending college in New York City, is brutally raped while walking in a park.
Traumatized by the experience, Mary Ann washes away all the evidence and destroys her clothing. She hides the rape from her mother and stepfather, with whom she has a distant relationship.
Mary Ann tries to continue living her normal life, unsuccessfully. She takes the subway to school and faints during the crush of people. That results in the police taking her home, which upsets her prim and unsympathetic mother, played by Mildred Dunnock.
The rape continues to haunt Mary Ann. She leaves school abruptly and walks downtown, through Harlem and Times Square, down to the Lower East Side. She rents a room from a sinister landlord (Martin Kosleck), who overcharges her.
She takes a job at a five-and-dime store and her coworkers dislike her because she is distant and unfriendly. Her crude, promiscuous neighbor at the rooming house (Jean Stapleton) is rebuffed when she offers to "introduce" Mary to her male friends.
At the end of her tether, Mary Ann walks across the Manhattan Bridge and almost jumps in the East River when she is stopped by a mechanic, Mike (Ralph Meeker). At first he seems to be a knight in shining armor. She decides to stay with him. But that night he comes home drunk, tries to attack her, and Mary Ann kicks him in the eye. The following morning he has no recollection of that, but his eye is badly hurt and has to be removed.
Mike now says that he wants Mary Ann to stay there, saying "I like the way you look here." She wants to leave but he refuses to let her go. He holds her captive in the apartment for months, even though she refuses to have anything to do with him.
One night Mike proposes to Mary Ann and when she rejects him, again tries to approach her. Mary Ann reveals to Mike that it was she who blinded him in one eye. Mike still insists he needs her. Soon Mary Ann finds that Mike has left the door unlocked and leaves, walking through the city and sleeping in Central Park. Her mood greatly improves, and she sees how wonderful life is. She returns to the apartment and decides to stay with Mike. She marries him, becomes pregnant, and convinces her mother that she is not returning home.
Who is blind in one eye?
Mike