An American mathematician and his British wife relocate to her rural hometown in England's countryside. Intent on a peaceful life focused on his academic research, the couple move into an isolated house that once belonged to the wife's father. Their presence and foreign ways are met with a mix of curiosity and hostility by the locals. The mathematician hires a group of men, who are acquaintances of his wife from her past, to repair the farmhouse. However, the crew demonstrates unruly behavior, chiding the mathematician's pacifism and making lewd gestures towards his wife, igniting a series of increasingly troubling interactions.

The tension between the couple and the locals escalates when the intrusion of the workmen becomes more brazen and personal. The mathematician's reluctance to confront the men head-on creates strife with his wife, who feels both frightened and exasperated by his passivity. Meanwhile, the local men's taunts turn into outright aggression, leading to a series of confrontations that spiral out of control. The simmering conflict and the mathematician's intellectual demeanor are put to the ultimate test, challenging the limits of his morality and pushing him towards a breaking point as the situation grows ever more volatile.