Richard Trevelyan (Richard Todd) was convicted of murdering his wife, given an 11th-hour Death Row reprieve and freed under unusual circumstances after retrial. But his past does not matter to Shelley Carnes (Ruth Roman), an actress visiting the Texas ranchland that Richard calls home. She's fallen in love with him. But after she becomes the second Mrs. Trevelyan, Shelley is beset by doubts and fear. The director and screenwriter of Bette Davis's Beyond the Forest ' King Vidor (The Fountainhead) and Lenore Coffee (The End of the Affair) ' reteam in a richly atmospheric mix of mystery, romance and murder sparked by a luminous cast that also includes Mercedes McCambridge and Zachary Scott.