The film gives a portrait of mental health treatment during the 50s, which was the heyday of treating mental patients in big institutions.

Charles Laughton plays Kidd, a merchant captain who cons the King of England into allowing him to take to the sea to recover a lost treasure and escort a ship back to London. An old fellow conspirator who he thought dead (John Carradine) and a mysterious young man (Randolph Scott) manage to get on board and cause problems for Kidd.