Alan Kennebeck, a Milwaukee bank official, arrives in Stockholm to verify a loan to a factory official. At the same time, Mr Kennebeck, who is married, drifts into a tender affair with the official's sister-in-law Anita.

Alan Kennebeck is unable to accept a brief, realistic romance for what it is. Eventually it leads to his complete moral downfall. Triggered by the factory official Eric Walderman, being a sadistically suave conniver and villain, who babbles a Nietzschean creed of ruthlessness and brings the picture to its grim, melodramatic conclusion.—Ulf Kjell Gür