Sixty-one year old widower Will Varner, in ill health, owns many businesses and property in Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi, including a plantation. To him, his children are a disappointment, they who he sees as not being able to carry on the Varner name in the style to which he has built around it. Son Jody Varner has no ambition and does not work, spending much of his time fooling around with his seductive wife, Eula. Twenty-three year old daughter Clara Varner he finds clever, but he feels she also wastes her time on more contemplative pursuits. While most of her contemporaries are married, Clara has been dating Alan Stewart, a genteel mama's boy, for six years. Will would not mind Alan so much if he too thought Alan had a bit of a forceful man in him, which he could demonstrate by actually asking Clara to marry him. Conversely, Jody laments that nothing he does is ever good enough for his father, while Clara plain does not like the way he treats them. Into their lives comes Ben Quick, who Jody hired while Will was hospitalized, Ben to do some sharecropping on currently vacant land. Despite Will believing the unsubstantiated stories that Ben burned down someone's barn as an act of vengeance, Will becomes to view Ben as the son he never had as he is much the same mold. As such, Will does whatever he can to get Ben to be part of the family to carry on the Varner name the way Will wants it be, which means marrying Clara. Through the process, Clara may come to a realization about what she really wants in life, while Jody does whatever he can to retain his position in the family. 一锅夹生饭。夏日春情。《漫长的炎夏》电影剧本。《夏日春情》。都是奥斯汀惹的祸。美国南部的（傲慢与偏见）。 本片根据威廉福克纳的原着改编。故事描述在美国南方的密州小镇，一个腐朽且死气沉沉的富户，因为一名强悍的年轻佃农闯入他的生活而引致情况发生了整个变化。本片是一部文学艺术十分浓厚的电影，导演马丁．瑞特对气氛的营造非常成功，对几位主角的性格刻画也非常深入有力，可惜结局有点泄气之感，此外，本片的剧本和原着小说有很大的出入。
