Driftwood

The Reverend Hollingsworth's voice falters during the sermon and Jenny steps in to finish the quotation from scripture. Their bond becomes clear as she calls him Grandpappy and sits by his side in the nearly empty church. The scene ends with the Reverend joining Jenny in the pew and soon dying, leaving her to face the world alone.

Jenny heads down a road through a desolate landscape, intermittently singing and talking to herself. The isolation mirrors her upbringing with her great-grandfather and her literal view of truth. The scene shifts toward a night where a distant plane appears, foreshadowing danger ahead.

An airplane with an engine on fire descends and explodes, a frightening sight Jenny calls Beelzebub. A collie appears and starts walking with Jenny, and she takes a placard identifying the plane. The crash marks a turning point in her journey and introduces medical intrigue.

Dr. Steve Webster stops to help Jenny and the dog, inviting them into his Jeep and offering safety. He drives them to his home, where Murph the pharmacist lives, and Jenny spends the night there. Steve is revealed to be conducting research on Rocky Mountain spotted fever, foreshadowing the plot's medical stakes.

Murph fills Jenny in on the town's quirks and the challenges of preventing spotted fever. He notes that vaccines exist, but many locals resist vaccination until it is widely available. Steve's work is supported by a grant, while a hospital is fifty miles away.

Steve introduces Jenny to Susan Moore, who is living with Mathilda. Mathilda criticizes Steve as a hopeless dreamer and scolds Susan for waiting for a proposal. Jenny's blunt honesty, learned from her isolated upbringing, triggers Mathilda's upset and Steve's insistence to remove Jenny and the dog.

Steve takes Jenny to a local store to buy clothes and, unable to pay, arranges a controversial trade: the proprietor's three children will undergo tonsillectomies in exchange. The mayor's son taunts Jenny, and the dog chases him away, humiliating the boy more than harming him. This scene highlights local power dynamics and Jenny's vulnerable status.

Murph reveals a large stock of vaccine but notes the town's heavy resistance to vaccinating children. The mayor's priorities favor building a park over a hospital, despite the nearest hospital being fifty miles away. Citizens begin to realize the stakes in preventing the fever.

The mayor arrives with a gun, threatening the dog, and Steve ejects him from the home. In the struggle, the mayor stumbles and dislodges the infected ticks into the air, while Jenny is bitten on the leg. The sheriff orders the dog jailed pending the trial, forcing Jenny to confront fear for her companion.

During the trial, Jenny testifies but cannot sway the judge, and the dog is initially condemned. Steve arrives and pushes for a medical examination of the mayor's son, leading to a shared determination that the boy shows no injuries. The dog is kept under observation while Jenny falls ill with Rocky Mountain spotted fever, intensifying the urgency.

Steve learns that the crash involved a dog being sent to Colorado to create a serum, and that the dog had antibodies. Jenny's own dog is identified as that same canine, opening the possibility of a serum derived from its blood. The discovery reframes the crisis as a potential medical breakthrough.

The town broadcasts an emergency alert and Dr. Nicholas Adams hears it, calling back with guidance on the correct dosage of the serum. Steve and Murph work to obtain the necessary information from the responsible institute to determine how much serum to give Jenny. The clock ticks as they await a precise medical protocol.

Dr. Adams arrives, awarding Steve a $5,000 grant to continue his research and stay in town. Steve declares he will marry Susan and adopt Jenny, while the institute relinquishes their claim on the dog so it can remain with the new family. Murph and Mathilda appear poised to marry, wrapping up the town's hopeful conclusion.