Gertrude Lawrence rises to stage stardom at the cost of happiness.
After financial improprieties are discovered at the Eastern trading company where he works, Peter Willems flees the resulting disgrace and criminal charges. He persuades the man who gave him his start in life, the merchant ship captain Lingard, to bring him to a trading post on a remote Indonesian island where he can hide out.
American Mike Harper, sent to do business in England, moves there with his wife, Janet. But she soon becomes convinced that Mike is carrying on with his attractive new assistant, Claire. Mike also has been spending a considerable amount of time with his British bachelor buddies. Vexed and lonely, Claire hires charming antiques expert Paul to decorate the Harper home and maybe make Mike jealous in the process.
