Carol Carwin (Eleanor Parker) is a self-centered American woman living in Hong Kong with her husband, Walter (Bill Travers), a respected and committed British doctor. Bored in her marriage, Carol begins an affair with Paul Duvelle (Jean-Pierre Aumont), a suave Frenchman. When Walter learns of his wife's infidelity, he demands that she either accompany him while he fights a brutal cholera outbreak or suffer a highly public and humiliating divorce.