At the height of the African Mau Mau rebellion, Englishman Alan Howard (Dirk Bogarde) travels to his older brother's farm in Kenya, only to discover that his brother has been killed by Mau Mau nationalists. Stricken with grief and filled with hatred for the natives, Howard's instinct is to return home to England. But when he develops a romantic interest in his neighbor, Mary Crawford (Virginia McKenna), he decides to stay despite the increasingly dangerous situation for resident colonists.