Foreign correspondent Tom Kelly (Paul Kelly) recounts his time in postwar Europe at a meeting of fellow journalists. In Hungary, he sees firsthand the brutal oppression perpetrated by Stalin's Soviet Union and its treatment of outspoken Cardinal Mindszenty (Charles Bickford). Kelly meets teacher Stephanie Varna (Bonita Granville) in Budapest and visits the cardinal. Soon the authorities begin persecuting Mindszenty and torture Stephanie for refusing to denounce his principles.