A doctor's sophisticated wife joins him at his remote Asian practice to try and patch up their marriage. Increasingly violent friction between local rubber plantation workers and the authorities force both parties to make decisions.

Dr. Alec Windom (Peter Finch) has devoted his life to the health and general welfare of the native population, including an orphan boy he virtually adopted, of a village in Malaysia at the time when a Communist revolution was feared. Alec's wife Lee (Mary Ure), a London socialite, flies in, claiming her artistic career is over and tries to move in as his partner and nurse, but he doesn't believe it, and has more pressing worries: fellow Britton Mr. Patterson (Sir Michael Hordern), who manages the rubber plantation, which is the only major local employer, insists the authorities stop the villagers growing their own rice again instead of buying it cheap from the plantation, claiming it's an excuse for a rebellion. Dr. Windom tries to mediate and cool everyone down. The local leader trusts him, but Patterson forces native Mayor Lollivar (Grégoire Aslan) to stand back and allow the hot-head police chief Lansang (George Margo) to resort to brutal violence, arresting the revered village elder, who dies in jail. A bloody drama is in the making.—KGF Vissers