Synopsis

Jacob Schunk, a sixteen-year old Hutterite boy, is given a mouth organ by a stranger. His love of creating music and his love for Marta, a Hutterite girl, inevitably clash with the puritan, patriarchal society of the Hutterites. In the view of the stern powerful ?Bosses,? music and moon-light meetings by the straw stack are the Devil?s work. They condemn Jacob and Marta to a one-month shunning, smash Jacob?s mouth organ on an anvil, and arrange for Marta to marry some one else?all of which lead to Jacob?s final rebellion.