She's also a much nastier and smarter(though, and the plot hangs on this, not as smart as she thinks he is--just smarter than her husband) in the film than this might leave the impression of. Basically, she gets married very young as part of a land deal with her dad, who's dead before the film. The terms of the deal is that the marriage cannot be consummated till she's of legal age. The film starts on that day. She refuses and also finds any loophole in the agreement to do so, causing, shall we say, great frustration to said husband. Meanwhile there's a Sicilian guy(played by Eli Wallach) who has designs on the land and the cotton gin on it who seduces her(or at least it's a hard flirt) in order to find info out about him and ruin him.

The film's a lot more chaste on the surface than its rep suggests. All the sexual material is heavily hinted at but never shown. In fact, the film could almost be a textbook on ways to trick the Hays Office. One scene on a porch swing in particular.