The bog stretches eerily for many miles, silent and forbidding. On its boundaries lives Marlin, the bog watcher, and his old mother. She is the Wise Woman. She understands the secrets of the marshes - where it is safe to step, when the north wind will bring the geese. She can commune with the powers of nature. When the workmen arrive to tunnel for peat under the bog, to profane her countryside, the Wise Woman sets her witches arts to work...