Philip Marshall (Charles Laughton) is a kind, henpecked accountant who strikes up a friendship with Mary Gray (Ella Raines), a young stenographer who had approached him looking for work. He gradually finds himself falling in love with her, but keeps the relationship platonic.
Marshall's wife Cora (Rosalind Ivan), who has also alienated their son with her shrewish ways, discovers the affair; when Marshall asks her for a divorce, explaining that they would both be happier apart, Cora refuses and instead threatens a scandal. In order to protect Mary's reputation, Marshall breaks off their relationship and cuts all ties with her; despite his best efforts to reconcile with Cora, their marriage does not improve. Cora later dies after a fall down the stairs at home; it is strongly hinted that Marshall murdered her, although the death appears accidental.
Inspector Huxley (Stanley Ridges) of Scotland Yard suspects that Marshall murdered his wife but is unable to prove it or establish a motive. Huxley follows Marshall, learning of Mary Gray, and interviews a number of the people in Marshall's neighborhood. When Huxley seeks to interview Mary directly, he is informed that she and Marshall were married earlier that day, making it impossible for Huxley to compel her to testify against her husband. Meanwhile, Marshall's drunken, wife-beating, spendthrift neighbor Gilbert Simmons (Henry Daniell) is interested to learn of the inspector's suspicions, and he relishes the chance to blackmail Marshall, whose respectability he envies. He threatens to invent a story about an argument between Marshall and his wife on the night of her death, which would substantiate that Marshall had killed his wife.
Marshall poisons his neighbor, using an overdose of anodyne drops from a bottle that Simmons' wife had shared with him. Marshall and Mary plan to move to Canada to follow Marshall's son, who has recently received a position there from his company. When the inspector hears of Simmons' death, he sets a trap in which he pretends to frame Mrs. Simmons for the murder. The success of the trap depends on Marshall's coming forward, rather than letting the innocent woman hang. The inspector believes that, in spite of everything, Marshall has never lost his innate decency. The film ends with Marshall's wife and son sailing to Canada while Marshall disembarks at the last moment, presumably preparing to turn himself in.
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