Plot

The film centres around the character of Tom, a young army recruit in an unnamed time and country (presumably World War II-era Eastern Europe) who deserts after an artillery barrage kills his sergeant, in the process blinding a sadistic officer who tries to stop him.

He is shell-shocked into muteness and takes refuge with a traveling gypsy caravan, led by Darky (Hoskins). Among the principal members of the clan are Darky’s mentally disabled son, Simon, Simon’s mother Elle (Wanamaker) who harbors a grudge against Darky, and Darky’s only daughter, Jessie (Nathenson), who forms a romantic bond with Tom, eventually becoming pregnant by him.

In order to avoid arrest and execution by the army, Tom disguises himself as a “rawney”, described in the film as a kind of “magic” madwoman, who (in the gypsy culture) is able to see the future and can control animals.

Frightened at first, Darky befriends the “rawney”, thinking him or her to be good luck, but soon Darky is revealed to be a flawed leader, unable to protect his clan from war, and beset by family turmoil which is exacerbated by Tom’s presence.

Throughout the film, the army and the partially blinded officer is a menace, threatening the Gypsies’ way of life and those who befriend them.

In a moving finale, the army corners the gypsy clan, who manage to hold them off with meager rifles and pistols long enough to enable the young members of the clan, including Tom and Jessie, to escape, at the cost of their own lives.