The day before a young man is to be executed for killing his girlfriend, his alcoholic father shows up to try to prove his innocence.

Alec Graham (Alec McCowen) is sentenced to death for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie Cole (Christina Lubicz), with whom he was spending the night at the flat of the parents of his friend Brian Stanford (Paul Daneman). Alec's father, David Graham (Sir Michael Redgrave), a not-so-successful writer and alcoholic who has neglected his son in the past, flies in the day before the planned execution from Canada to visit his son on death row. Alec is resigned to his fate and not amenable to his father's attempts for a final reconciliation. David Graham, convinced of his son's innocence and, despite his preoccupation with himself and his own alcoholism, mounts a last-ditch effort to find the true murderer in the twenty-four hours remaining until the planned execution. Graham encounters the wealthy and famous car manufacturer Robert Stanford (Leo McKern), tyrant at home and in the office, and an apparent womanizer, Stanford's young, curiously troubled wife Honor (Ann Todd), their ill-at- ease adopted son Brian, himself disturbed by his parents' relationship, and Vickie Harker (Lois Maxwell), a young, brazen secretary at Stanford's factory who received a promotion following Alec's conviction.—freddy-11

In London, Alec Graham, convicted for the murder of his girlfriend Jennie Cole, is on death row with only twenty-four hours to live, all his lawyer Jeremy Clayton's efforts for stays of execution exhausted. David Graham, Alec's novelist father, comes to Alec for the first time since the sentence, only just having heard about it as he was locked up in a sanatorium in Montréal, Québec for alcohol abuse. Alec reluctantly speaks to his father who has been largely absent from his life. The facts as Alec and Clayton know: Alec and Jennie met the evening of the murder at the Stanfords' flat - Alec's best friend Brian Stanford and his adoptive parents, businessman Robert Stanford and Honor Stanford - where Jennie's dead body was discovered. Alec and Jennie had quarreled over Jennie wanting to break up with him. Although Alec stated that he left her alone at the flat at the end of the evening as she was so drunk not to make any sense, the toxicology report indicated she had no alcohol in her system. Alec does not remember what happened after he left, as he was drunk when he was picked up by the police in the morning. David is convinced Alec is innocent and sets out trying to prove that before he is executed. In speaking to the Stanfords and Agnes Cole, Jennie's sister, David believes he stumbles onto some pertinent information. As time ticks down, David, in his desperate state, turns to the bottle, which makes his ravings come across as those of a drunken lunatic. But his desperation also leads to him doing whatever he needs for the truth to come to light, if only to atone for being such a neglectful father to Alec.—Huggo

In the final day on death row in a London prison for murdering his girlfriend Jennie Cole, Alec Graham receives a visit from his estranged father, writer David Graham, who did not attend the trial in working overseas in Canada. Alec is well aware and David does eventually admit that he really was in a sanatorium all that time in dealing with his alcoholism, and only found out about Alec's plight when he was released yesterday. This last minute attempt by David to reconcile with him is too little, too late for Alec, who, after his lawyer Jeremy Clayton has run out of reprieves, has resigned himself to his fate despite knowing he did not commit the crime. David too is well aware that Alec is inherently not the type of person who could kill another human being, let alone one he professed to love. As such, David, without Alec's blessing who wants nothing to do with his father or false hopes at the eleventh hour, is determined to find concrete evidence as to Alec's innocence and if possible to discover who really killed Jennie. In the process, David meets the Stanfords, Alec's best friend Brian Stanford and his adoptive parents, automobile manufacturer Robert Stanford and his wife Honor Stanford, who treated Alec like family, and in whose flat Jennie's dead body was discovered. In the Stanfords, David finds a dysfunctional family, some who want to help, some who want nothing to do with Alec anymore and thus David, and all who seemingly don't want certain truths to come to light. Through it all, David is on the brink of falling out of his sobriety, which, if he does, means that he will be of little to no use in saving his son.—Huggo