The Raggedy Man

In 1944, the telephone company has brought divorcee Nita Longley to the small town of Gregory, Texas to be their switchboard operator, which requires her to be at the switchboard day and night. Her boss Mr. Rigby tells her that the job would only be a stepping-stone to a more-lucrative job with regular working hours, but then he tells her that the war has frozen her position. Now Nita feels trapped, living in the telephone-switchboard office building with her two sons, adolescent Harry and infant Henry. Her divorcee status makes many of the townsfolk, especially the men, view her with contempt and scorn her as a loose woman. One evening, Teddy Roebuck, a sailor on a four-day furlough who is hitchhiking back to his home in Ardmore, Oklahoma, stops by to make a telephone call. When he learns that the reason for his trip home no longer exists, Teddy decides to stay in Gregory instead and befriends Nita and her boys; eventually Nita and Teddy fall in love. The stranger's arrival annoys locals Calvin and Arnold, who have been pursuing Nita, who has rebuffed their advances. The town's unidentified disfigured man, whom Nita fears, could ultimately provide her with the ability to move on with her life.