Desire Under the Elms

Year: 1958

Runtime: 111 mins

Language: English

Director: Delbert Mann

DramaRomance

Ephraim Cabot, a vigorous elder, obsessively tends his New England farm out of greed. His sons—children of two wives he buried early—resent him and share his avarice. The most bitter, Eben, believes his mother’s legacy makes him the rightful heir. Cabot’s new wife Anna rivals him for the estate, and her flirtation with Eben escalates tension.

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Desire Under the Elms (1958) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Read the complete plot breakdown of Desire Under the Elms (1958), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.

Widower Ephraim Cabot, Burl Ives, is a greedy New England farmer who has overworked two wives to their graves and keeps his three sons in servile labor on the land he clings to.

That land originally belonged to his second wife, and before her death she pleads with Eben, the youngest son, to take the farm as his birthright. Eben, determined to claim his prize, uses money stolen from his father to buy out his half-brothers’ shares, while Pierre Cabot [Pernell Roberts] and Simeon Cabot [Frank Overton] head off to California to seek their fortune.

Back on the farm, Ephraim returns with a new wife, Anna Cabot, [Sophia Loren], a beautiful and headstrong woman from Italy, who enters into an adulterous affair with Eben. Soon after, Anna bears Eben’s child, but lets Ephraim believe that the child is his, with the old man assured that the farm will be willed to the child. The proud Ephraim is oblivious to his neighbors’ open mockery of him as a cuckold.

Eben and Anna argue, and in a moment of jealousy—fed by the elder’s taunts—Eben tells Anna he wishes the baby were dead and desires to never see Anna again. Madly in love with Eben and fearful of losing him, Anna kills the infant, thinking this will prove to Eben her commitment to him. However, an angry and distraught Eben threatens to tell the sheriff what she has done and departs.

Before the sheriff arrives, Eben returns to the farm and admits to Anna the depths of his love for her and confesses his own role in the infanticide. The old man condemns them both, calls out God, and is content that the farm will not fall into anyone’s hands. The sheriff comments to his deputy that he wishes he could possess such a special farm as Ephraim’s and then takes the two lovers to jail.

Last Updated: October 07, 2025 at 08:28

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