Abandoned by his beautiful wife Irene during the Great Depression, Henry Talcott spends the summer in a tent on the edge of Black Pond with his two children. Struggling to provide for the children, Henry often must leave them to search for work, and while he loves them deeply, he is devastated by Irene's desertion. When a wealthy neighbor, Mrs. Farley, begins to woo the children as companions for her strange, housebound son, all their lives change in unexpected ways.