For as long as crime boss Albert Mendoza (Everett Sloane) has been running a notorious ring of hired hit men, District Attorney Martin Ferguson (Humphrey Bogart) has been hunting him down. But Ferguson cuts a deal with Mendoza's henchman Joe Rico (Ted De Corsia), and the mob boss is finally arrested. However, Rico dies mysteriously before he can testify against Mendoza.

In a strict Prussian boarding school for girls, sensitive student Manuela von Meinhardis develops a forbidden love to one of her teachers, the compassionate Elisabeth von Bernburg.