Government officials arrive at a village to seize women, mostly prisoners' kin and poor girls, offering them as wives. The village men, desperate for partners who can help work the fields and bear children, nervously await their selection. The officials pressure the men to choose quickly or risk the women being sent to a military brothel. The three Hartwell sisters step forward, but a man dismisses the prettier ones as useless. In a tense moment, an older man asks if taking one means the others will be forced into the brothel, then shocks everyone by declaring he wants all three sisters. The villagers are left unsettled by his decision.