A sermon by Rev. John Burrows (
Sterling Hayden),is interrupted as his wife, Jane (
Peggy Webber),walks down the center aisle of the church. She feels she can not keep up with her husband's ambition and sense of importance, and she commits suicide. In a grave-side rejection of religion, John blames his parishioners rather than himself. He runs of and wanders around the country. After being jailed as a vagrant, he ends up in the Bowery section of New York City. The head of a skid-row mission, "Doc' Thorssen (Ludwig Donath') and his blind daughter, Christine (
Viveca Lindfors), take care of him and give him a job as a janitor.
—Les Adams <longhorn1939@suddenlink.net>