He inquires about the whereabouts of the notes for his new anti-marriage book,Mind over Matrimonythat Abby had hidden from him.She told her allergic son, after ordering Chinese food for the family: "Only steamed chicken and snow peas for you.But Lydecker arrogantly ridicules and snubs her.He refuses to endorse her ad, and turns her away:Young woman, either you have been raised in some incredibly rustic community where good manners are unknown or you suffer from the common feminine delusion that the mere fact of being a woman exempts you from the rules of civilized conduct, or possibly both.Soon, the horror threat was coming from inside the farmhouse as well as outside, during a struggle for power between a resourceful, capable and calm black man (it was remarkable that the lead character was African-American!) and an impulsive, older white family man.The film is dotted with classic sequences - the uprooting of he stubborn stump in the yard, Torrey""s murder in the muddy street and his hilltop funeral, and the climactic finale.