A winter evening near the estuary of Ganges. A group of drifters called 'crow-hunters' have lost their way. After a little search they find shelter for the night with a widow named Andi, once belonged to their tribe. She had moved out of them to settle down with a man from a different caste and made her home on the alluvial island here where peasants wrench out tillable land from the salt water with a heroic effort. All she has now is two children and a patch of land about which the landlord and his local tax collector have a terrible interest. In the morning the 'crow-hunters' are given hospitality by the tax collector and are trapped into a plot against the widow. Their chief is led to identity her in the court as member of their tribe which turns out to be decisive evidence against her 'marriage'—for how could there be a marriage between a gypsie girl and a regular peasant—and to prove that her patch of land is legally ownerless. And not only is her land thus grabbed, but her hut too is brunt down. The 'crow-hunters' realize their fault and offer to take her with them, but Andi stays on to put up a last fight.
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